Noticed Bill Clinton surreptitiously sizing up more striking women at reception: Sonia

New Delhi: The Monica Lewinsky scandal had subsided when Bill Clinton came to India in 2000 but “old habits die hard”, says Sonia Gandhi in her memoir, recalling the then US president every now and then “surreptitiously sizing up the more striking women” at a reception.

The Clinton anecdote is among the many interactions with world leaders, including Princess Diana and Nicolas Sarkozy, Gandhi has recounted in her just released book “Belonging: A Journey Of Love”.

She talks at length about a reception then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee hosted in Clinton’s honour.

“President Bill Clinton was staying at the Sheraton hotel with his daughter, Chelsea, and his delegation in 2000 when I called on him with our foreign minister. Friendly, informal, and exuding confidence, he appeared more keen to give us his own views and predictions about Kashmir- ‘a nuclear flashpoint’, in his words, ‘one of the most dangerous places on earth’–than to pay attention to our point of view,” she says in the book.

“The Monica Lewinsky scandal had subsided a little by then, but old habits die hard; at the reception held by Prime Minister Vaipayee in his honour, I noticed him every now and then surreptitiously sizing up the more striking women present,” Gandhi says.

She also shares interesting anecdotes from then French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2008 visit when he made a trip to India without his then partner Carla Bruni.

“It was said that he (Sarkozy) had been advised not to bring her (Bruni) because they were unmarried which would have been awkward at official functions. Seated at the banquet table, I was amused when the wife of our Vice President Mohammad Ansari, seated next to him, proceeded to quiz him good-naturedly about his marital plans. Was he going to get married? And if so, had the date been decided? Was he missing her? “President Sarkozy seemed unperturbed by the cross-examination, even eager to share details of his love life, answering all her questions while continuously messaging his Carla on his phone,” says Gandhi.

She says that she met the couple on a subsequent visit at a private dinner given by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his wife some years later.

“By this time President Sarkozy and Carla Bruni had tied the knot and made their appearance together. He was obviously besotted with his tall and beautiful wife of Italian and French descent, who had been a popular singer and songwriter in Europe, as well as a top model. All eyes were on her as she glided into the room in an elegant long gown, graceful and slim, demure and blue-eyed,” Gandhi says in the book.

“She spoke cordially but infrequently–while her husband held forth, expounding his views to our prime minister on what India should do in what I felt was a rather arrogant manner, unmindful of the fact that he was talking to someone more senior, more experienced and more knowledgeable,” she says.

Gandhi also remembers in vivid detail her interactions with the British royal family, particularly Princess Diana.

There had been a friendship between some members of the British royal family and ours over generations, and Rajiv had got on well with Prince Charles, she writes in her book.

“The real star of that family had of course been Princess Diana: tall and slim, with large blue eyes, an enchanting smile, and a magnetic personality. I can never forget how ravishing she was as a bride when Rajiv and I attended their wedding in 1981. But when they came to India in 1992, it was evident that things were not going well in the marriage,” Sonia Gandhi writes.

“On the very day she famously posed alone on what I call the ‘love bench’ in front of the Taj Mahal, they had come over for a late tea. Prince Charles was forthcoming and amusing, but she appeared morose, though looking wonderful in a striking red and purple two-piece suit. We chatted about what she had seen and liked on her visit,” she says.

Gandhi says her mother, who was visiting during this period, was keen to meet the famous princess, and her daughter, Privanka, insisted that her ‘Nonna (grandmother)’ be introduced.

“Diana wondered why she was so quiet, and Priyanka answered immediately that it was because she had been told by me to not open her mouth, since she spoke only Italian. Diana burst out laughing and turned immediately to my mother, holding out her hand, “Piacere, comne stai?” (“Pleased to meet you, how are you?”), trying to pronounce the words in the correct Italian accent, though using the informal form of address, but with such warmth and charm that we all melted,” she narrates.

“After tea and more chat, we were seeing them off to their car when she stopped halfway, turned back to wave to my mother, and called out, ‘Ciao. Nonna!’ After I presented the royal couple with my book Rajiv, she wrote to me, telling me how much she had admired my husband,” Gandhi says.

In London, Sonia was invited for tea with them and she came in wearing a black suit with a white collar saying, “I am feeling like a crow!” “I met her again at a hairdresser’s when I noticed a familiar face sitting right next to me. I scribbled a word and passed it on to her, passed it to her, and the next second realised that instead of ‘Hi’, I had written ‘Hye’. How I wished I could have snatched back the note! But it was too late; she had already put it into her handbag. She turned to me with a smile of recognition, and we exchanged a few words in hushed tones, not wanting to attract attention,” Gandhi recalls.

That was the last time I met her, she says.

Much has been written and said about the late princess, down to present-day TV series about her life, her marriage, her children, and more, she notes.

“There was a lot of criticism of her at that time: She was spoilt and complaining; she had everything; why was she behaving as if she had been wronged? I must say I felt for her throughout, and still do,” Gandhi says.