Book review: The Red Sari by Javier Moro

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.

Ultimately, The Red Sari is a love story, a sweet and tragic one. If you care for that sort of thing.