NEW DELHI — Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi fought two consecutive battles with cancer during the United Progressive Alliance’s second term in office, undergoing complex overseas surgeries that were kept strictly shielded from the public eye.
She broke decades of silence over her health in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey Of Love, which hit bookstores on Tuesday. The disclosure ends years of fierce political speculation surrounding her sudden medical travels during the height of the UPA-2 government, revealing that doctors detected a pancreatic growth barely twelve months after she underwent surgery for breast cancer in 2010.
The medical troubles began when physicians at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital warned her that a suspected breast malignancy required urgent intervention. There was no time to lose. Her mind raced to grim outcomes, yet the immediate hurdle was navigating public scrutiny. To avoid an intrusive media storm, she bypassed Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital and flew covertly to the European Institute of Oncology outside Milan.
I had always sought to keep my personal space private, and the thought of my illness being discussed in the media was painful to me, even infuriating," Gandhi wrote. "True, I had become a public figure, but did that mean I wasn't to be allowed even a modicum of privacy?
Celebrated Italian oncologist Dr Umberto Veronesi took charge of the procedure. Accompanied by her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, son-in-law Robert Vadra, a senior government officer, and her sisters Nadia and Anouchka, she entered the operating theatre under tight secrecy.
Surgeon Veronesi removed two tumours—one malignant and a second non-suspicious growth excised as a precaution—before administering intra-operative radiation to eliminate the need for five subsequent weeks of conventional radiotherapy.
"On the day of the surgery, as I was wheeled into the operation theatre, Rahul and Priyanka held my hand and kissed me on the forehead, assuring me that all would be well," she recalled.
Relief lasted barely a year. During a routine follow-up check in 2011, diagnostic scans picked up an unexpected growth on her pancreas. The news stunned the family. Doctors initially suspected a neuroendocrine tumour, an ominous diagnosis pointing toward high-risk surgery and months of hospitalisation.
She traveled quietly to the Netherlands, placing her care in the hands of pancreatic specialist Dr Casper van Fijck at the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam.
"I was agitated and worried about the operation in spite of everyone's reassurances, since the actual extent of the disease could only be determined after the surgery," Gandhi wrote. "My mind began to dwell on a worst-case scenario. What if it turned out to be a metastatic growth? Would I come through it?"
Post-operative pathology brought rare reprieve. Dr Fijck confirmed that the team had caught the lesion early, before it crossed out of a preliminary precancerous stage. Back in New Delhi, the power corridors remained completely in the dark; only then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a tight circle of senior party colleagues were briefed on her absence.
| Parameter | 2010 Procedure | 2011 Procedure |
|---|---|---|
| Condition | Suspected Breast Cancer | Pancreatic Growth (Precancerous) |
| Medical Facility | European Institute of Oncology, Milan | Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam |
| Lead Surgeon | Dr Umberto Veronesi | Dr Casper van Fijck |
| Intervention | Dual tumour excision & intra-operative radiation | Pancreatic resection |
| Political Status |
Copies of Belonging: A Journey Of Love reached commercial distribution nationwide on Tuesday, marking the veteran politician's most extensive public reflection on her personal life and political career.
| Chairperson, UPA Coalition |
| Chairperson, UPA Coalition |