Power's world: an audience with Sonia Gandhi

The Indian electorate has handed the centre-left Congress party an overwhelming mandate to govern---the alliance it leads won 262 out of the 543 seats in the national parliament. Here, Jonathan Power recalls his meeting back in 2005 with Sonia Gandhi, the party's leader and head of one of India's oldest political dynasties.

I walk up Sonia Gandhi's driveway, past guards with Uzi machine guns, and can't help thinking that when I came to interview Mrs Indira Gandhi (Sonia's mother-in-law) on the eve of her great comeback and massive electoral win, I walked up to her front door and knocked. There were no guards and only one servant to let me in.

I am ushered into Sonia G's office. She barely acknowledges my presence. "Buon giorno", I say. There is no reply. I have been warned that she's cold and she doesn't offer me a hand. She walks over to me and asks me to sit down.

I look her in the eye and ask my first question to the Italian widow of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was cruelly blown to smithereens by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.



"Do you mind if I begin with a personal question?" "Yes", she says. I ask her, as the victorious chairwoman of the Congress Party, whether it was difficult to decide to go into politics, given the toll it has taken on her family. "I am at peace about that", she replies. "I have thought it through". Then she suddenly interjects, "I hope this isn't an interview. I just want us to get to know each other a bit." I reply defensively that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (who fixed me the introduction) had said it could be an interview.

We continue, but without me writing in my notebook, and I lapse into a gentler, more conversational style. "Why did the pull of politics overcome your inhibitions?" "Congress was in disarray. It couldn't win an election. And we need to keep India as a secular state, encompassing all religions."

I ask her about her own religious beliefs and, like her mother-in-law, the murdered Indira Gandhi, she replies, "I'm not religious: my parents are not particularly religious although my mother sometimes goes to church. "So on what basis do you make moral decisions in family life or in politics?" "I suppose Catholic values are at the back of my head."

I push on. "What about nuclear weapons? You are one of those with your finger on the button." She grimaces. A God-spare me kind of look. Clearly, with her and Manmohan Singh in charge, the Pakistanis must know that the India will never threaten to use its nuclear weapons. Why that doesn't lead to disarmament is a question that nobody would give me a straight answer to.

In fact, Zbigniew Brzezinski has recently given me his latest book. I realize from that how none of us have thought seriously about nuclear disarmament. I also mention Robert McNamara's book to Sonia, which firmly advocates total nuclear disarmament for the superpowers, unilaterally for the US if necessary. (McNamara was Secretary of Defence for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson). "It is a marvellous book", I say. "You'd be inspired reading it." "Yes, I like the man", she comments. "He's been here a couple of times for seminars we organized at The Rajiv Gandhi Centre." Then, being friendly for the first time, she asks me how my lecture went at the same Rajiv Gandhi Centre (which Manmohan chaired). I notice that now her lips are less pressed. She looks me in the eye. I notice the grey strands in her hair. She is no beauty, but she has charm and a quiet dignity. She doesn't play the queen bee - although in fact that is what is, flying as high as it's possible to fly in Indian politics.

When I interviewed Indira Gandhi a couple of times she could sometimes be a little coquettish. But not Sonia G---she is straight as a die. Nevertheless, I couldn't resist telling her about one of my interviews with Indira Gandhi. Indira entertained me with delightful Henry Kissinger and Peter Sellers stories. She told me about a Peter Sellers' film in which he played an Indian and ended up in a swimming poolwith a beautiful Indian lady . It was a sensitive matter for prudish Indian audiences, and was brought before the censorship board. "Wasn't the film a little blue?" I asked. "So what?" Indira replied. "I couldn't stop laughing. People can make up their own minds". Sonia G asks me to send her the interview.

I know Mamohan is waiting to see her. She moves her hands ever so slightly and I know my time is up.