A French Proverb says: “One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it.”

Brijesh Kalappa
17 March 2013, 04:36 PM IST

Sonia Gandhi, who completed 15 years as President of the INC was born to Stefano Maino and Paola Predebon on 09 Dec 1946 at Lusiana, Vicenza, Italy.  She completed her three year Course in foreign languages from the Istituto Santa Teresa, Turin, Italy in 1964 and then went on to the Lennox Cook School, Cambridge, UK to obtain a certificate in English in 1965.  She met Rajiv Gandhi at Cambridge and married him in 1968. The couple lived as complete commoners in Delhi and Mumbai, for 12 long years. In June 1980, Sanjay Gandhi died- Indira Gandhi pleaded with Rajiv to help her with the Party. Sonia Gandhi is reported to begged him to stay away from politics.

Just three years later, at the time of Indira Gandhi's assassination, "Sonia Gandhi was in a terrible state" describes former Governor P.C. Alexander in his book 'My Years with Indira Gandhi' "she was begging Rajiv Gandhi not to take over- they were hugging each other and he was kissing her forehead. Sonia was in tears and saying "you should step back and allow someone else to hold this job". She knew she was fighting a losing battle. Rajiv kissed his wife's forehead and said "It is my duty, I have to do it, I have to do it."

Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India in 1984, lost power in 1989 and was on his election trial in 1991, when he was killed in an attack by the LTTE. Sonia Gandhi in 1991, did something no Indian political widow has been known to do- she refused to assume the responsibility of Prime Minister of India and what is more, remained firmly away from all political activity for 7 long years. In 1998, the Congress Party had reached its lowest ebb and she saw that the Congress Party was crumbling.  It was then that she focused her entire energies on re-building the Congress Party which was in power in only three states of the Indian Union. Her efforts were successful in bringing the Party to power in 16 States and in the Centre- twice over, in 2004 and in 2009. In 2004, despite having obtained the people's mandate after trouncing the most popular Prime Minister of the BJP Atal Behari Vajpayee, she again turned down the post of Prime Minister. She said "I was always certain that if ever I found myself in the position that I am in today, I would follow my own inner voice. Today, that voice tells me I must humbly decline this post."

Mrs. Gandhi has been the prime mover behind some extraordinary pro-people decisions- Bharat Nirman, which has spurred developmental works in villages, waiving off loans to farmers while also insuring them for remunerative prices, creation of a Ministry for Minorities for the very first time while implementing recommendations of the Sachhar Commission, the passage of the RTI Act, which is arguably the biggest tool in our hands for halting corruption, Right of Education, through which, every child has the opportunity of obtaining elementary education, the mid-day meal program for children coupled with scholarships for the poor and for the minorities with particular attention to the girl child, the right to employment has been through the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, and a food security bill.

In her own words "Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined then the course my destiny would take. I was born in Europe, but was soon claimed by another world more diverse and more ancient. At school, I learnt of the Risorgimento, of Mazzini and Garibaldi and the unification of Italy. But of India, its great history and its emergence as a modern nation-state, I was taught nothing. My discovery of India happened differently, through the encounter with a remarkable human being. This discovery would take up the rest of my life!"  In becoming immensely popular in a nation outside one's own country of birth, she has joined the ranks of the Buddha (born in Nepal), Che Guevara (born in Argentina but attained cult status in Cuba), Mother Teresa (born in Albania but is regarded for her work in India).

Sonia Gandhi has stayed the course because her "journey from the placid backwaters of a contented domestic life to the maelstrom of public life has not been an easy one. Yet, despite its sorrows and difficulties, I have found in my new existence both fulfillment and a larger sense of purpose. The family to which I first pledged my fidelity was in the confines of a home. Today my loyalty embraces a wider family - India, my country, whose people have so generously welcomed me to become one of them." She has consistently displayed understated leadership, enormous dignity, immense grace under pressure, her profound sense of sacrifice and body of work bespeak a personality that will inspire generations to come around the world.  A fitting tribute the world can pay her is by investing her with the Nobel Prize for peace for her diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population- previously cited for Barack Obama.

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