With all the hoopla surrounding the book, I picked up Javier Moro`s The Red Sari (Lotus
Collection/Roli Books) with some trepidation. However, it turned out to be quite
readable . Moro calls it a dramatized biography of his subject, and boy, is it dramatized!
There is nothing in there that any Indian with half a
politically inclined bone in his body
doesn’t know already. There is quite a bit about Sonia`s origins in Orbassano,
and a cringe-worthy syrup-filled account
of how Rajiv and she met, started dating and fell headlong in love.
That very florid bit apart, the rest of the account is quite
unsentimental even though it is clearly sympathetic to Sonia G. In fact, it is
so devoid of dimension that it reads like a straightforward account of a woman
from Italy who just happened to fall in love and marry the scion of India’s
premier political family, and who did a wonderful job of adjusting,
assimilating, learning and living in a land that very soon did not seem alien
to her.
And this is the book the UPA-led government banned, back in
2010, when the Spanish El Sari Rojo
released !
Sonia`s early years
are spent running indira Gandhi`s household, cooking up amazing (Italian) food for them all, willy-nilly becoming Indira`s wardrobe
in charge, and bringing peace, stability and equanimity to the Prime Minister`s
residence, as Moro would have it.
The middle part of the book is pretty much given over to the
fall and rise of Indira Gandhi, the Bangladesh war, the emergency, Operation Bluestar, her utter dependence on Sanjay Gandhi.
Sonia emerges as a strong resourceful woman who manages to
put her terror at being in the public eye or holding a political position
behind her. It is a neat picture of a woman and her children who see more than
their fair share of tragedy in their lives.
Moro says Sonia speaks fluent Hindi. That she undoubtedly does.
He also says she speaks it with a slight accent. Now that is gross playing down
of the facts involved : Sonia G`s Hindi is so heavily accented even now, people
have to pick up a word or two and then piece it together, to follow the gist of
her speeches. Rahul, alas, comes through
here too as a very undecided human being (and I’m being charitable!); Priyanka
as one who is supremely self-assured, has a strong and distinct political bent.
In fact, Moro ends the book clearly hinting that Sonia`s daughter, not her son,
might well be her true heir.
(The latter chapters switches tenses from the past tense to
the present continuous, and that is disconcerting.)
Moro has written the book is such an assured style, the
reader would not be faulted for thinking he had direct access to Sonia and her
children. But the bibliography reveals just how useful the works of all the
usual suspects (Katherine Frank, Pupul Jayakar, Rasheed Kidwai, PC Alexander,
Ramachandra Guha, Vinod Mehta, etc) have been in helping him craft the
account of Orbassano`s Cinderella …again, his words, not mine!.
And for those who are wondering: there are no salacious
tidbits in here. Thanks be. As for those who are wondering why the book was
banned: mystifying, because it is basically an excellent PR job for Sonia
Gandhi nee Maino. In fact, the Indian
reader is hard put not to gag when she reads this sentence: The three of them
(Sonia, Rahul, Priyanka) are overcome by that curious feeling that the name
they bear does not belong to them but to India, to the crowds who call for their leadership,
and that they are not masters of their own destiny.
Well, really. Yes, `power did kidnap` them but they have managed
to coax many perks out of the job too.
Uultimately, The Red Sari is a love story, a sweet and
tragic one. If you care for that sort of thing.