Sonia Gandhi has made a splash with her social media debut ahead of the release of her forthcoming book, ”Belonging: A Journey of Love”. For the first time, the 80-year-old Congress leader took to Instagram, X, and Facebook to share tidbits from her autobiography to get people to pick it up when it is launched on November 10, predicting that the book would create a “tamasha”.The book has already aroused widespread interest nationally and in international circles. This is not surprising, for it is penned by a woman, Italian-born, who married into the first family of India in 1968. She made India her home and, for almost six decades, witnessed at close quarters some of the most dramatic events unfold, including the assassination of her husband Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Seven years earlier, still dressed in her night clothes, she had rushed the blood-splattered body of her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, to the hospital.AdvertisementIn 2012, Forbes magazine ranked Sonia as the sixth-most powerful woman in the world. She is still seen as a troubleshooter for the party when required; over the years, she managed to establish cross-party links, be it Mamata Banerjee, Lalu Prasad, or Mayawati. She also enjoyed a special rapport with the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and often smoothed the tensions between the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the Left parties, which had propped it up in power.Also Read | Sonia Gandhi joins Instagram, posts video with upcoming memoir ‘Belonging’There is speculation about the timing of the book and the impact it could have on the highly polarised politics today, with the Nehru-Gandhi family at the centre of the Congress’s stand-off with the BJP. But the book has been coming for a long time. There was a buzz some years ago that British historian and writer Patrick French was working on it. But it did not see the light of day for reasons unknown, and French died in 2023.The book’s title indicates that it may not just be about Sonia’s own life and romance with Rajiv, but also emphasise the role and sacrifice of the Nehru-Gandhi family to offset the charge of “dynasty” and ”entitlement” that are levelled against it. Even as she has seen herself as a custodian of the family’s legacy, the second Mrs Gandhi has been conscious of the fact that “I am not Nehru’s daughter” like her mother-in-law was with its inherent advantages.AdvertisementAlso Read | ‘Bound to be some tamasha’: Sonia Gandhi’s second social media clip ahead of memoir releaseWhen Sonia said ‘no’The country has had 14 prime ministers, including three of the Nehru-Gandhi family: Jawaharlal Nehru (for 17 years), Indira (16 years), and Rajiv (five years). Then there have been powerful leaders who came close to becoming PM, but did not make it.There is also a third category of those who were offered prime ministership and did not take it. Sonia belongs to this group. She gave up the opportunity to become PM in 2004, when she was almost there after being elected the leader of the Congress parliamentary party. The UPA was backing her and President A P J Abdul Kalam had readied the letter to invite her to form the government. Instead, she appointed Dr Manmohan Singh.The only two other leaders who turned down a chance to become the PM are Left stalwart Jyoti Basu, who served as West Bengal’s Chief Minister for close to a quarter of a century, and former PM V P Singh, who did not take up a second stint. Basu was offered it in 1996, but the CPI(M) Politburo ruled against it, a decision the former later deemed a “historic blunder “. VP also turned down the offer in 1996 when the United Front coalition was put in place, knowing that the Congress would never support him.The most dramatic “no”, however, came from Sonia. Natwar Singh has claimed in his autobiography that Rahul Gandhi, now the Leader of Opposition, did not want her to become PM as he felt she would be assassinated in six months. Spurning the country’s top position, however, gave her an acceptability which might not have otherwise come her way. Today, Sonia is seen as the tallest leader in the Congress.Also Read | ‘Heartbreak, loss threw me into politics’: Sonia Gandhi’s memoir out in NovemberI still remember how a Haryana villager, speaking about Sonia, once told me, “Byah kar aayi thhi, yaha ki ho gayi (She came to the country after marriage and became one of our own).” Prevalent social norms — that a woman acquires the attributes of the family she marries into — also helped. Had it been a case of an Italian man marrying an Indian woman and making India his home, the story might have been different.The Sonia phenomenon is unique in contemporary Indian politics. She emerged more as a wielder of power behind the scenes. One cannot think of another political figure who influenced three PMs — her husband, who was in the saddle from 1984-89, P V Narasimha Rao, who ruled from 1991 to 1996, and Dr Singh, who served in the post from 2004 to 2014.She had the vantage view during the two decades when these three PMs were in power. The terms of these PMs spanned some of the most critical moments in contemporary political history, from when the Mandal and Mandir fires raged, and Kashmir and Punjab were aflame, to the opening up of the economy because of a balance of payments crisis. However, by the end of this, the Congress declined from the unprecedented 414 Lok Sabha seats it clocked during Rajiv’s time to heading an 18-party coalition under Manmohan Singh, and finally losing power in 2014 with the rise of Narendra Modi.Sonia’s ups and downsSonia herself joined active politics in 1997 when the Congress was eroding at the seams. She is credited with keeping the party united, taking it to victory in 2004, pushing for a rights-based framework that allowed the enactment of laws such as the Right to Information and MNREGA, which helped bring the party back to power in 2009. She helped win back the confidence of the minorities alienated after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. However, she failed to comprehend the changing Hindu psyche or stem the Congress’s decline and is accused of keeping the seat warm for her son.Through all this, Sonia Gandhi became the Congress’s longest-serving president, heading the party for 22 years. In the process, she overtook stalwarts of the Independence movement such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Sarojini Naidu, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Rajendra Prasad, J B Kripalani, and later figures such as K Kamaraj and Indira.you may likeAlso Read | Behind Sonia Gandhi’s book controversies: From The Red Sari row to memoir disputeHow did this “outsider”, courted by the party bosses after Rajiv’s assassination to lead the Congress, go on to become the irreplaceable “insider”? In some ways, 1991 was reminiscent of 1966, when party bosses had courted Indira and installed her as PM to upstage a rival, Morarji Desai. They had hoped Indira would remain pliant, but she got the better of them. Sonia, too, replaced the incumbent Congress president, Sitaram Kesri, within months of joining the party.Even as the politically inclined hope that the new book will throw more light on some of these questions, the ordinary reader might look for how Sonia coped after she came to India. How did this housewife who abhorred politics when she and Rajiv lived in PM Indira Gandhi‘s house, willingly walk through its portals and meet the moment? Whatever else it may or may not do, Sonia Gandhi’s autobiography is bound to stir the political pot.(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of How Prime Ministers Decide.)