Sonia — the power behind the throne

i saw them (indira and rajiv) struggle, work day and night to uphold certain values, certain principles... When it came to my call, i felt that i was being cowardly not to respond to them. Sonia Gandhi

new delhi — Sonia Gandhi stepped down as head of India’s opposition Congress party on Saturday after an extraordinary odyssey that transformed her from a shy housewife into the country’s most powerful politician and a torchbearer for the iconic Gandhi-Nehru dynasty.

The Italian-born Sonia, 71, was thrust into the cauldron of Indian politics after marrying Rajiv Gandhi, scion of India’s political first family, in February 1968.

One of three daughters of an Italian building contractor, she arrived in India as a mini-skirtwearing bride and converted into a sari-clad daughter-inlaw, giving up her Italian citizenship for Indian nationality.

Her years in the Gandhi household when her strongwilled, autocratic mother-inlaw Indira was prime minister gave her a ringside seat to India’s turbulent history.

It was Sonia who cradled Indira Gandhi as she lay dying after being shot by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

She said she “fought like a tigress” to prevent Rajiv, a commercial pilot, from entering politics after his brother Sanjay — Indira’s first political heir — died piloting a small plane.

After Indira’s assassination, Sonia feared politics might mean a violent death for her husband too, a vision that materialised when Rajiv was killed by a Tamil suicide bomber on the campaign trail in 1991.

She then led a reclusive existence for six years, raising her two children.

But in 1998, she accepted the entreaties of Congress leaders to join the political fray and give the party a Gandhi figurehead. A year later she was elected to parliament.

In a rare television interview last year she said she had changed her mind “because of a certain duty that I felt towards my mother-in-law and my husband”.

“I saw them struggle, work day and night to uphold certain values, certain principles,” she said. “When it came to my call, I felt that I was being cowardly not to respond to them.”

Sonia overcame stage fright to propel Congress to a surprise electoral win over the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in May 2004.

She barnstormed the country, addressing huge rallies who shouted “Sonia Gandhi zindabad” — “Long Live Sonia Gandhi”. —