She told her partymen on Tuesday that the post of prime minister had not been her aim.
"I was always certain that if ever I found myself in the position I am in today I would follow my inner voice. I humbly decline the post." In fact, during the run-up to the elections she had said that she would take up the position only if her party won a clear majority, and that if it were to form a coalition government she would let somebody else head the government.
At that time many people dismissed these assertions as a case of sour grapes since it was widely believed that the Congress party had little chance of coming into a position where it could form even a coalition government.
In the event, she has proved that she meant what she had said. Indeed she has exhibited an extraordinary capability to lead her party from the front in its time of despondency and to take a back seat when power is firmly in its grasp, thereby rising several notches higher in public esteem.
Some say that Sonia Gandhi made the decision she did in the face of the threats that the Hindu extremists within the BJP had been hurling at her. Having taken issue with her foreign origins, BJP MPs, including its otherwise secular allies, such as the Samata Party of the outgoing Defence Minister George Fernandes, had declared that they would boycott the new prime minister's swearing-in ceremony if the person to be sworn-in was Sonia Gandhi.
Another former minister, Sushma Swaraj, had vowed to have her head shaved in protest against a foreign-born prime minister. But there was nothing new about such expressions of visceral hatred against the Congress party leader.
The BJP had targeted Sonia Gandhi for her foreign origins all through the election campaign.
The party's fanatical Hindu leader ruling Gujarat state, Narender Modi, had been particularly vicious in his dirty verbal attacks against Sonia Gandhi's as well as her son, Rahul, whom he called 'hybrid.'
According to analysts, Modi's dirty talk did not sit well with the Gujarat electorate's tastes, and resulted in an unexpectedly strong showing for the Congress in that state.
If the BJP's hate-filled campaign could not prevent Sonia from carrying on the election campaign why should she decline power after the Indian electorate has reposed confidence in her leadership? Reports suggest that her children, having lost their father and grandmother to politically motivated violence, are afraid for her life, and do not want their mother to put herself in a position where she might become a target of the Hindu extremists' resentment.
If true, that exposes the immaturity of Indian democracy. What it plainly shows is that the religious extremists in India are unwilling to accord respect to the people's verdict as also the country's founding ideal of secularism.
In fact, some of them have been expressing mistrust in the Indian democracy itself, which has made it possible for a Muslim to be its president, and a Christian prime minister.
Sonia Gandhi herself indicated that the BJP's intolerant mood might have had something to do with her decision when she averred, "It is my inner voice, my conscience. My responsibility at this critical time is to provide India with a secular government that is strong and stable."
Even so, her decision says a lot about her strength of character, and her ability to resist the temptation of occupying the most powerful office in the world's largest democracy. She refused to change her mind despite the vehement pleadings of her partymen and some of her coalition partners, who eventually accepted her nominee, Manmohan Singh, as the parliamentary leader and prime minister-to-be.
Many in this country would want to draw parallels and lament if only this or that leader had allowed the other to serve in this country's top political office, things would have been much better than they are now.
One can still hope our leaders will learn from the example Sonia Gandhi has set, and willingly make personal sacrifices for the greater strength and stability of the country.