Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday strongly defended her mother, Sonia Gandhi’s newly released memoir, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party and RSS of spreading lies and fabricating stories about her for years, and said she was happy that the BJP was now reading her book.

Speaking to reporters during her visit to her Wayanad constituency, Priyanka Gandhi said her mother had remained silent for most of her adult life in India despite being subjected to sustained criticism and allegations by the BJP, RSS and others.

“For the whole of my mother’s adult life in India, the BJP, RSS and many others have said whatever they wanted about my mother. They have lied, they have fabricated stories and also invented stories about her, and she has been quiet. Now, she is telling her story, and she has the right to do so. It is good that they are ready to read it. For so long, they (BJP) have been telling lies about my mother, and now she is telling the truth. I am happy they are reading her book,” she said.

This was Priyanka Gandhi’s first visit to Wayanad after the release of Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, on November 10.

The book, which chronicles Sonia Gandhi’s personal journey and her years in Indian politics, has triggered a political exchange between the Congress and the BJP.

The BJP has criticised the memoir, accusing Sonia Gandhi of attempting to whitewash controversial chapters of the Congress party’s history, including the Emergency and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The Congress, however, has defended her right to present her own account of events.

Priyanka Gandhi’s remarks came during a three-day visit to Wayanad, where she is scheduled to inaugurate development projects and review ongoing works in her constituency.

On Thursday, she visited the family of the late Padma Shri awardee and traditional seed conservationist Cheruvayal Raman in Mananthavady.

She was also scheduled to inaugurate two Smart Anganwadis at Kammana and Thrissillery.

Priyanka Gandhi represents Wayanad in the Lok Sabha, having won the constituency in the 2024 by-election after her brother Rahul Gandhi vacated the seat to retain Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.

In a significant political outreach aimed at strengthening ties with the farming community ahead of future electoral battles, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav held a meeting with prominent farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and discussed a wide range of issues affecting cultivators across Uttar Pradesh.

Following the meeting on late Wednesday evening, Yadav shared a detailed message on social media, asserting that farmers remain the most distressed section of society and deserve both dignity and fair compensation for their labour.

In his post on social media platform X, Akhilesh Yadav said that greenery should not merely symbolise prosperity, but that prosperity itself must reach every household, courtyard and village.

He stressed that such an objective can only be achieved when farmers, agriculture and rural communities receive due respect and adequate value for their hard work.

According to Yadav, his discussion with Tikait revealed that farmers across Uttar Pradesh continue to face serious challenges.

Referring to the Samajwadi Party’s PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) social justice plank, Akhilesh Yadav remarked that those who are suffering are part of the PDA and added that the letter “A” in PDA also stands for “Annadata”, meaning farmers who feed the nation.

The statement is being viewed as an attempt by the Samajwadi Party to expand the PDA narrative by placing farmers at its core.

Yadav claimed that growing support from the farming community would help ensure the success of the PDA in every village and at every polling booth.

The meeting comes at a time when farmer-related issues continue to dominate public discourse in Uttar Pradesh.

Farmer organisations led by Tikait have repeatedly raised concerns over minimum support prices (MSP), pending sugarcane dues, crop losses and procurement-related issues.

In recent months, Tikait has also participated in protests and agitations demanding better returns and policy support for cultivators.

Reiterating the importance of agriculture to the nation’s economic and social well-being, Akhilesh Yadav said, “When the fields smile, the nation will smile.”

He said that villages and the country can prosper only when ‘annadatas’ (farmers) are prosperous.

The struggle for farmers’ dignity, rights and fair remuneration, he added, forms the real strength of the PDA movement.

A strange encounter with a palmist at the Gandhi family’s erstwhile residence in Delhi decades ago, which initially appeared amusing, later acquired an unsettling significance in the wake of a series of political tragedies. The incident, recalled by Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in her memoir ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, revolved around a prediction that her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, would one day become the Prime Minister instead of his younger brother, Sanjay Gandhi.

The memoir, released on November 10, recounts the incident from the late 1970s, when the Gandhi family was living at Bungalow Number 12 on Willingdon Crescent in Delhi, a period Sonia Gandhi refers to as the “Baara Number days”.

Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had shifted to the four-bedroom residence with her family after losing power in 1977. The house had been vacated for her by family friend Mohammad Yunus. At the time, Rajiv Gandhi was working as a commercial pilot and had little inclination towards politics, while Sanjay Gandhi was widely regarded as his mother’s political successor.

Recalling one of the unusual incidents at the residence, Sonia writes, “Of all the bizarre happenings and unusual characters in 12 Willingdon Crescent, there’s one that stands out in my memory.”

She describes how a palmist entered their portion of the house without permission and attempted to persuade her to let him read her future.

“One day, a fat man dressed in white forced his way onto our side of the house and began calling out to me, brandishing a paper with the imprint of a palm…I didn’t believe in astrology, I told him. I asked him politely to leave — I had no time to waste, I had work to do, I knew my past, and I was not interested in knowing my future,” she writes.

However, the man refused to leave despite her objections. Sonia recalls that when she ‘flew angrily at him to chase him off’, he turned around and shouted a prediction while making his escape.

“Nahi, nahi, Sanjay nahi — aapke pati Rajivji ek din pradhan mantri banenge! (No, no, not Sanjay, your husband Rajiv will become prime minister one day!)”

The incident became even more amusing when Sonia discovered that Rajiv had already interacted with the palmist.

“Then I saw Rajiv, laughing heartily, with the imprint of the palmist’s ink on his palm. He’d been waylaid by the astrologer and humoured him, thinking it was a great joke. I rushed to my room and tried to calm down, but burst out crying instead,” she writes.

The prediction eventually took on a different meaning following a succession of tragedies. Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash in June 1980. Four years later, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984, following which Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as the Prime Minister within hours. According to the memoir, he accepted the responsibility despite Sonia’s tearful appeals against his entry into politics. He told her, “They will kill me anyway.”

Although Sonia maintains that she was not superstitious, the memoir also describes instances when events made her wonder whether certain occurrences carried a deeper meaning.

One such incident took place during Rajiv Gandhi’s 41st birthday celebrations in August 1985. During dinner, the family received news that Akali leader Harchand Singh Longowal had been shot dead in Punjab.

“I couldn’t share what was going through my mind, that this was a tragedy but also a bad omen,” she writes. “Why on Rajiv’s birthday — was that just a coincidence, I wondered, or a warning?”

The memoir also revisits the couple’s decision to move into 10 Janpath on February 5, 1990, where Sonia Gandhi continues to reside. Several of Rajiv Gandhi’s colleagues had reportedly advised him against choosing the residence, describing it as “inauspicious”.

Behind the property’s rear gate was a mound believed to contain an elephant’s grave, while the grave of a Sufi pir was located opposite it. However, Rajiv and Sonia dismissed the concerns.

“Neither he nor I were superstitious and laughed it away,” she writes.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated 15 months after moving into the residence, in May 1991, adding another tragic dimension to the memories recounted in the memoir.