India, Nov. 10 -- For over a decade, they were top political adversaries, squaring off on India's electoral battlefield. Yet, in her 544-page memoir, former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi reveals she has had very little real contact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while acknowledging some common ground with the Bharatiya Janata Party leader.

"To this day, I've had practically no real contact with him. We meet at semi-official gatherings-for instance, at the Speaker's chamber," she writes in her memoir Belonging, which hits the bookstores on Tuesday. "When he comes face-to-face with me, we greet each other with a formal namaste. This is different from the past, when leaders across party divides would treat one another with cordiality. He ...