Jaipur LitFest: Author Javier Moro talks about his book on Sonia Gandhi

He describes how Sonia Gandhi broke into tears when Rajiv Gandhi broke his vow of staying away from politics and filed his nomination after the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi; how she handled the phase when tragedy struck her family, and how she never wanted to get into politics.

When asked what made him write about Sonia Gandhi, he flatly said that because nobody has written about her.

“I remember going to a book store and asking for a book on Sonia Gandhi and I was told that it doesn’t exist,” he recalled.

He also said that her story of a young girl who left promising her father to return, and the events that followed was a dream come true for a writer.

On why nobody has written earlier on her, he said that being a shy person she has been discouraging people from writing it.

Javier Moro said he gathered information for his book from friends and people close to Sonia and the Nehru-Gandhi family. Moro did invite Sonia Gandhi to read his but she refused.

“I asked her if she want to read and make any changes but she said, ‘we don’t read what has been written about us’ and that’s the only line I got from her,” he said while laughing at the irony.

Javier Moro admitted not writing much on major tragedies surrounding her life like Sikh riots, bofors amongst others. He said he wanted to write about how she felt when she first spoke Hindi, when she was adjusting to this culture at that point in time and how she felt when she faced a major tragedy.

“I was impressed with the transformation. From a house wife who hates politics to becoming a politician and a powerful person in a country of a billion people,” he added.

On Bofors issue, he said that after doing his research he doesn’t believe that they were involved and they can’t be blamed for a friend who might be corrupt.

On the controversy created by Congressmen that kept the book off shelf for five years, he laughed and said that by creating a ruckus in front of Spanish embassy they gave him and his book publicity even though it might have looked like he had hired them. He also said half jokingly that publishers should hire them if they want their book to sell.