Sonia Gandhi had emotional meeting with Nelson Mandela in 2007

JOHANNESBURG: Congress President Sonia Gandhi had got a little emotional during a courtesy call she made on former South African President Nelson Mandela in 2007, when she heard how the African National Congress was indebted to her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi and husband Rajiv Gandhi.

Back then, introducing Gandhi to guests and a huge media contingent, veteran Indian-origin anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, who spent 26 years in South African jails with Mandela and became one of his closet aides, said the senior Gandhis and India as a country had played a major role in the struggle against the apartheid government.

"Through all her life (Indira Gandhi) gave her unwavering support to the ANC and for the struggle for a non-racial democratic South Africa. She was instrumental in setting up the ANC office in Delhi and India was the first country to accord diplomatic status to the ANC," Kathrada had said.

"For this and other reasons, we are delighted to welcome Miss Sonia Gandhi as President of the Indian National Congress," he said.

Choking with emotion, Gandhi had said: "It was for me a very moving moment as sitting (in Mandela's office) I was reminded of the role that my husband had played in supporting and helping with the building of that very office."

Gandhi said she was equally delighted to be in South Africa to help celebrate the centenary of the Satyagraha Movement started by Mahatma Gandhi at the turn of the last century during his tenure in the country.

"The presence of not only Madiba (the affectionate name by which Mandela is known) but so many of you freedom fighters who struggled for the freedom of South Africa from the brutal regime of apartheid is an honour and a very moving moment for me," Gandhi had said.

"India has supported the movement from the very beginning, with the National Indian Congress, from Nehru to Indira Gandhi to Rajiv Gandhi, and that support will always be there," she said.