In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi recounts her son's warning regarding security concerns two months before the former prime minister was killed.
Sonia Gandhi has recalled an eerie premonition made by her son, Rahul Gandhi, prior to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991. According to reports by The Economic Times, Rahul Gandhi had told his mother two months earlier that if nothing was done about his father's security, he would have to return for his funeral.
The former prime minister was killed in an explosion in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, when a woman detonated explosives while pretending to offer him a garland. The blast killed Rajiv Gandhi and 14 others. Gandhi noted in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, that the assassination occurred a little over a year after the V P Singh government withdrew his Special Protection Group (SPG) cover.
Gandhi wrote that although a committee decided in December that the SPG cover should continue unless a fresh threat assessment warranted a change, no such review was undertaken. She stated that the specialised force was replaced with local police the following month.
The memoir describes the moment Sonia Gandhi learned of the explosion from her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi. She recalled the dread in Priyanka's voice as she informed her of the bomb and the deaths, which led to the realisation of the tragedy.
