New Delhi, November 10, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has described her relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as distant, saying she has had “practically no real contact with him” despite their meetings at official and parliamentary gatherings.
In her 544-page memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, released on Tuesday by HarperCollins India, the former Congress president wrote that she and Modi had exchanged formal greetings on several occasions but had never really conversed.
She recalled meeting the Prime Minister at semi-official gatherings, including events marking the end of Parliament sessions, where they greeted each other with a formal “namaste”. However, she said the cordiality traditionally seen among political leaders across party lines was missing.
“He tends to look away, avoiding eye contact,” she wrote.
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Sonia Gandhi added that they had exchanged formal birthday and New Year greetings over the years. She also recalled occasions when Modi enquired about her health following her discharge from hospital. On one such occasion, he asked, “Theek hain aap?” to which she replied, “Ji, ab main theek hoon, shukriya”.
The Congress leader also highlighted their ideological differences, saying Modi’s vision of India was very different from hers. She described their political positions as competing visions of the country, writing that she stood for an India based on inclusiveness, secularism and social justice, and opposed to hegemony.
In the memoir, Sonia Gandhi also criticised the language used by Modi against India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. She attributed his approach to what she described as his “conditioning” by the RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP.
The memoir offers her account of political developments and relationships over the years. The BJP has criticised the book, describing it as an attempt to “whitewash the history”.
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