Sonia made up her mind in 1999, says former aide

R.D. Pradhan says Congress chief felt her foreign origin was an issue

While former Congress leader Natwar Singh has said in his autobiography that it was Rahul Gandhi who stopped Congress president Sonia Gandhi from becoming Prime Minister in 2004, fearing that she would be assassinated, Ms. Gandhi’s former aide R.D. Pradhan says she had made up her mind as early as 1999. Ms. Gandhi felt her foreign origin, among several factors, made her unsuitable for the post, he adds.

Mr. Pradhan’s book My Years with Rajiv and Sonia documents the events of 1999 when President K.R. Narayanan invited Ms. Gandhi to form the government after the fall of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime. At the time, Mr. Pradhan who served as Union Home Secretary, was working as an aide to Ms. Gandhi.

His book says Ms. Gandhi had informed him and Congress leader M.L. Fotedar about her decision not to accept the Prime Minister’s post shortly before her meeting with the President in April 1999.

“She had told me even then that she had in mind the name of Manmohan Singh,” Mr. Pradhan said in an interview to

The Hindu . “What happened in 2004 was consistent with her stand in 1999.”

“She told me that ‘I am an Indian citizen, but conscious of the fact that as a person of foreign origin I cannot offer myself for the post of the Prime Minister.’”

Mr. Pradhan said that in 2004, Ms. Gandhi must have held consultations with party leaders on a decision she had already made. “Mr. Natwar Singh referred to a meeting during this period,” he said. By then, Mr. Pradhan had left the post and was not aware of what had transpired at the meeting.

In his book, Mr. Pradhan says he prepared a draft for Ms. Gandhi ahead of her meeting with the President in 1999.

She met him and Mr. Fotedar to go over the draft before the meeting.“She told me that the draft was all right but she had made a small addition. She decided not to offer to lead the government. As an explanation, she stated that she could not contemplate assuming the Prime Minister’s office.”

The book goes on to say, “She added that she had reluctantly come into the political process. She strongly felt an obligation to a political party in which her family had been involved for decades and sacrificed their lives. Her desire was to strengthen the Congress and work for its revival so that secular democratic India survived.”