Papa smiling, looking down proudly, says Rahul ahead of Sonia’s memoir release

On his father Rajiv Gandhi’s birth anniversary, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (August 20, 2026) recalled the loss of his father and paid an emotional tribute to his mother Sonia Gandhi, saying he could imagine “Papa smiling and looking down proudly at his beautiful Sonia”.

Mr. Gandhi was referring to the upcoming memoir of his mother and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi. 

In a message on X, Mr. Gandhi said he had last seen his parents together more than 35 years ago and since then watched his mother “face everything life threw at you with never-ending courage and dignity”. 

Only he and his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, he said, knew “what you have been through, and how difficult your life after Papa truly was”.

Mr. Gandhi said he was proud that Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, would be read by “millions of people who love you”, adding that he knew how difficult it had been for someone as private as her to tell her story.

The memoir, due to be released in November, recounts her journey from Italy to India, her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi, the deaths of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, her entry into politics after her husband’s assassination and her decision to decline the Prime Minister’s post in 2004.

At an event later in the day to mark his father’s birth anniversary, Mr. Gandhi shifted from the personal to the political, saying the growing assertion by students across the country could no longer be suppressed.

“The students are saying we have an expression and we believe in certain things as individuals. I am very proud now that millions of young students have understood this,” he said, adding that the “expression has suddenly come out and it cannot be stopped”.

The challenge, he said, was to convert this awakening into structural change, particularly in education. Invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of swaraj, Mr. Gandhi said it was not merely “freedom” but “rule over oneself” and required an environment in which people could pursue their own conception of truth.

He questioned how swaraj could exist alongside an expensive education system, an unfair examination system, and an economy dominated by a handful of people. “How will that expression transform the education system of our country,” he asked.

Mr. Gandhi also sharpened his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-RSS, saying the political contest was fundamentally about who had the right to determine what constituted truth.

“When Mr. Narendra Modi says, ‘I forgive the students’, meaning, ‘I know everything and you don’t know anything and I forgive you’, that’s why they attack students every single day,” he said, referring to the Prime Minister’s remarks on student protests.

He accused the BJP-RSS of marginalising minorities, taking away tribal land and perpetuating caste oppression, and said the political struggle was to ensure that every citizen felt they “belong” in India. “The country should help you walk on that path. That is Gandhiji’s vision for India, and that is the path of swaraj,” he said.