NEW DELHI, Nov 10: Congress leader Sonia Gandhi wrote in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, that her first child, a son born nearly two months premature, died a day after his birth in 1969.
She wrote that the child was born through normal delivery on January 18, 1969, and was placed in an incubator. Doctors had expressed concern about his chances of survival.
Sonia Gandhi wrote that Rajiv Gandhi took her to see the child, who had thick black hair and long fingers. The couple embraced the baby when they first saw him.
Rajiv Gandhi informed her at around 6.30 am the following morning that the child had died, she wrote. The loss left both of them deeply distressed.
Indira Gandhi, who was outside Delhi at the time, cut short her visit and reached the hospital after learning of her grandson's death, the memoir said.
The family faced difficulties over the child's last rites before deciding to bury him at Feroze Gandhi's farmhouse in Mehrauli, Delhi. Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi buried the child beneath a pink bougainvillea bush, Sonia Gandhi wrote.
She wrote that she struggled with mental anguish and guilt for a long time after losing the child. Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi's second child, Rahul Gandhi, was born on June 19, 1970.
