Sonia Gandhi memoir revisits Singh choice and Mukherjee remark

Sonia Gandhi’s newly published memoir recounts her decision to choose Manmohan Singh as prime minister in 2004 and describes a 2010 conversation in which she interpreted Pranab Mukherjee’s remark about a change at the top as a hint of his own prime ministerial ambitions. Both accounts are Gandhi’s recollections in Belonging: A Journey of Love, not independently corroborated descriptions of private conversations or motives.

Gandhi writes that she considered Singh a person of unquestionable integrity with a deep understanding of governance. She says she believed his appointment would reassure people about the United Progressive Alliance’s ability to govern and continue policies begun in earlier years. Singh, an experienced economist, had served as finance minister in the early 1990s.

She recounts that after deciding not to become prime minister, she consulted senior colleagues and suggested Singh for the post. According to her account, he was approached privately, initially hesitated and eventually agreed. Gandhi says the two travelled to Rashtrapati Bhawan on May 18, 2004, to take steps toward forming the government. She writes that they did not discuss the prime ministership...