Sonia Gandhi's memoir 'Belonging: A Journey of Love' has shed new light on the fractured relationship between Indira Gandhi and her daughter-in-law Maneka Gandhi in the early 1980s, naming former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje as a key figure who allegedly sided with Maneka during a period of deep family discord following the death of Sanjay Gandhi.

The Birthday That Stung Indira Gandhi

One of the more striking episodes recounted in the memoir centres on Varun Gandhi's first birthday in March 1981. According to Sonia Gandhi, Indira Gandhi had proposed a modest celebration for her grandson — referred to in the memoir as 'little Feroze' — with some of Maneka's friends and their children. Maneka Gandhi declined the offer outright.

Indira Gandhi subsequently learnt that a birthday party had nevertheless been held — not at the family home, but at the Delhi residence of Vasundhara Raje. The memoir presents this decision as a deliberate slight aimed at Indira Gandhi. Vasundhara Raje, then a supporter of the RSS and a political opponent of the Congress, is described as having actively supported Maneka during this turbulent period.

The Surya Magazine Sale and Its Fallout

The memoir recounts a second incident involving Raje that, according to Sonia Gandhi, further deepened Indira Gandhi's suspicions that Maneka was preparing to leave the family home. Raje reportedly helped arrange the sale of Surya — Maneka Gandhi's political magazine — to associates of Vijayaraje Scindia, the former Rajmata of Gwalior and Raje's mother.

The magazine was eventually sold to J.C. Jain and Sardar Angre, both described as close associates of Vijayaraje Scindia. Surya had drawn considerable attention in political circles, particularly for its reports concerning the son of then Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram, which had triggered a major controversy.

For Indira Gandhi, the sale was an affront on multiple levels — a perceived betrayal of the memory of Sanjay Gandhi, of her father Jawaharlal Nehru, and of those who had opposed the RSS ideology, the memoir states. The development contributed significantly to the widening rift between Indira and Maneka.

The Scindia-Congress Rivalry in the Background

The memoir's reference to Vasundhara Raje also brings the longstanding political hostility between Indira Gandhi and the Scindia family into focus. Vijayaraje Scindia was arrested during the Emergency of 1975 under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) for her opposition to the Congress government. She was lodged in Tihar Jail alongside Gayatri Devi, a member of the former Jaipur royal family.

Vijayaraje Scindia was a prominent figure in the RSS and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh — the political predecessor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — and was closely associated with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, among other Jana Sangh stalwarts. The political and ideological gulf between the two families thus lent an additional dimension to Maneka's association with the Scindias.

What the Memoir Reveals About 1980s Family Politics

Taken together, the episodes narrated in 'Belonging: A Journey of Love' offer a rare first-person account of how personal grief, political ideology, and family loyalty intersected within the Gandhi household in the years immediately after Sanjay Gandhi's death in 1980. Vasundhara Raje emerges from Sonia Gandhi's account not merely as a social acquaintance of Maneka but as a politically significant figure whose involvement in the family's private moments carried public and ideological weight.

The memoir is likely to reignite interest in the Gandhi family's internal dynamics during one of its most consequential periods, with its disclosures arriving at a moment of continued political relevance for both Varun Gandhi and Vasundhara Raje.