LONDON: Sonia Gandhi was not moved by the sight of Alexander bearing a gift and her security staff like the Trojans feared the chunk of Italian cheese as a wooden horse.

The brief foray by Alexander the interviewer into India was a near disaster since he returned from his encounter with Sonia Gandhi in Delhi not with the booty of “red-hot copy” as an Indian daily had speculated but just four quotations one each on Indira Gandhi the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian family system Sonia spoke out a few words.

The Congress politicians do not have to rush to grab a copy of The Independent Magazine which published the Alexander Chancellor interview with Sonia Gandhi. There is no other reference to Sonias future plans except that she will start working as chairperson of the Rajiv Gandhi foundation. The British journalist gives credit to Sonia Gandhi for resisting the Congressmen’s call to assume power.

The interview finds that “given her retiring personality and the misery that Indian politics have brought her it seems impossible that she could wish a political career upon either of her children still there are some who think they detect a glint of ambition in young Priyankas eyes.” The second-ever media interview granted by Sonia Gandhi materialized because of the gentle persuasion by the London publishers of a volume of letters between Indira Gandhi and her father edited by Sonia Gandhi. The publishers may have persuaded Sonia to grant an interview to a British journalist but even they will fail to drag her to bookshops for signing the first copies when the book is released next month. The interview itself was granted “on the understanding that would discuss these letters and nothing else. When I got to Delhi I was told of a further “conditionality.” My questions would have to be submitted in writing in advance and would be replied to in writing. Sonia would then present me with her written answers over an informal cup of tea.”

Alexander carried a large lump of Parmesan cheese in the belief that “no Italian could fail to be grateful for such a gift but as it turned out the Parmesan was a bit of mistake Not only was it interminably handled sniffed and X-rayed by security men before being passed for entry but it did not get the rapturous reception from Sonia that I had smugly anticipated.” (A little homework on local customs would have told the British interviewer that in India there is no cheque book journalism as yet and journalists there do not offer but receive gifts) Alexander found Sonia indifferent not only to the Italian cheese but even to Italy itself. “I tried to talk to her about Italy but without success. She had lived in India now for so long she explained that she had rather lost touch with her country of origin.

She did not go there much nowadays she said partly because of the expense. She had gone more often when Rajiv was an airline pilot and entitled to free travel.

This was one moment at which I doubted her total sincerity.”

Article extracted from this publication >> June 5, 1992