Sonia Gandhi lit up her new Instagram profile Thursday, a first for a senior Congress figure, and shared a 30‑second clip of her receiving the first printed copies of "Belonging." She celebrated the moment with her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, as sweets were shared and photographs from the book were highlighted.
The move follows a month‑long standoff between her representatives and Penguin Random House India, who withdrew after a dead‑end over editorial changes, prompting HarperCollins to step in. The dispute left the memoir’s domestic launch in limbo for weeks, with rumors of external pressure to excise passages on Narendra Modi and the RSS.
"Belonging" charts Gandhi’s trajectory from a Venetian orphanage to the heart of Indian politics, detailing the deaths of Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi and her adaptation to a life in India. The memoir also covers the 2004 Lok Sabha victory that cemented the Congress-led alliance’s decade of governance.
Congress stalwarts have voiced alarm that the dispute may have stemmed from external pressure to remove references to the Modi government, though Penguin denied any interference and cited confidentiality clauses as the reason for stepping away.
HarperCollins will launch the book on Nov 10, with pre‑orders now available, and the Congress party plans a virtual launch event that day to coincide with the release.