‘Daughter-in-law of Indira amma’: Sonia’s bond with Telugu people

Hyderabad: For a group of Lambadi women in undivided Andhra Pradesh, Sonia Gandhi’s identity was closely tied to that of her mother-in-law, former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

In her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love, Sonia recalls how the women promised to vote for the Congress because she was ‘Indira amma’s daughter-in-law’. The Hindu highlighted this anecdote in its report on the memoir.”

Recalling her Jan Sampark programme in the undivided Andhra Pradesh following the Karnataka campaign in 2004, Gandhi says her stop was at Hyderabad’s Gandhi Bhawan, the party headquarters as she goes on to describe the building.

Moving onto Vijaywada from there, she says she was welcomed with slogans of “Indira Amma”, in her mother-in-law’s memory.

She recalls how her cavalcade passed by a bunch of women she recognised as Lambadas. Their bright clothes, complete with heavily mirror-worked dupattas, struck a chord as they reminded her of her own attire at her mehendi ceremony.

They presented her with a dupatta. When told why their traditional attire held special significance for her, the women broke into a dance and invited her to join them, Gandhi recalls.

They assured her that since she was “Indira Amma’s” daughter-in-law, they would vote for her party.

She says that such interactions helped her gauge the public mood, convincing her that she should continue to contest elections.

How Andhra Pradesh figures in Indira’s political battles

The memoir also revisits the political crisis that followed President Zakir Husain’s death in May 1969. The Congress Syndicate, a powerful group of party leaders opposed to Indira Gandhi, backed Neelam Sanjiva Reddy for the presidential election. Sonia Gandhi portrays Reddy, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh, as a Syndicate member and a ‘bitter opponent’ of her mother-in-law.

She says that Indira Gandhi backed V V Giri, who eventually won the election. Gandhi calls it an important victory for Indira.

She recounts another episode involving Sanjiva Reddy in June 1975, when the Allahabad High Court delivered its verdict against Indira Gandhi. The then Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Jalagam Vengala Rao, intercepted a message from Jayaprakash Narayan to Reddy, seeking his backing for a campaign to remove Indira Gandhi from office, she says.

In the message, Jayaprakash Narayan reportedly told Reddy that Indira Gandhi would be found guilty and disqualified from holding elected office for six years, adding that this presented an opportune moment to move against her.

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