Sonia Gandhi Says Indira Gandhi Regretted Emergency, Calls Decision to Impose It a Mistake

PTI, Nov 7, 2026, New Delhi: Weighing in on the Emergency, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has called the decision to impose it a mistake and said that she believes that her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also came to feel the same.

The Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson, in her upcoming book "Belonging: A Journey of Love", also writes that keeping Sanjay Gandhi "in check" could have prevented much of the damage that followed the imposition of the Emergency, according to The Guardian.

In an interview with the British daily ahead of the launch of her memoir, Gandhi said: "I always feel that Mrs (Indira) Gandhi was a democrat at heart."

"I know that many would laugh at this, but I believe she was never comfortable in the course of the Emergency. I think it was sitting heavy on her," she added.

Gandhi, who also holds the distinction of being the longest-serving president of the Congress, was quoted by the British daily as saying that it was a mistake for Indira Gandhi to call the Emergency, and that she believes her mother-in-law came to feel the same.

According to Gandhi, the family was split over the decision to impose the Emergency. Gandhi's husband, Rajiv, was against the move, telling his mother to wait for the next election, but her younger son Sanjay pushed for it, arguing at one family dinner that the opposition would destroy his mother and telling her, "They must be stopped", The Guardian reported.

Gandhi was quoted as saying that it inflamed tensions within the family, too, as Rajiv attempted to confront his mother, but she refused to listen.

"Keeping Sanjay in check could have prevented much of the damage that followed," Gandhi writes in her book, according to The Guardian.

In another interview published in The Hindu on Saturday ahead of the launch of her book, Gandhi also spoke about the turbulent times of the Emergency.

The Congress leader said that hindsight allows people to put things better into perspective and pointed out that Indira Gandhi herself later publicly expressed regret and apologised for excesses during the Emergency.

Asked about Sanjay Gandhi's name becoming synonymous with the Emergency, and whether the excesses of that time could have been avoided had Indira Gandhi listened to her elder son Rajiv and others, Gandhi said: "It was not only Sanjay, though in the public mind he is often seen as synonymous with the Emergency. There was a lot of pressure from some of her senior colleagues, and I think there were very few people around her like Rajiv who had a different point of view."

"I think eventually my mother-in-law began to understand the situation through her own wisdom and took actions to remedy it," she said.