The recent Income Tax reports linking Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari have created a political turmoil. Reports said that Bhandari had admitted before the IT department of his association with Vadra and e-mail exchanges with the latter. Bhandari allegedly acquired a benami property in London for Vadra. Earlier Vadra was brought into the limelight by anti-graft activist Arvind Kejriwal who had alleged that he had purchased 31 properties mostly in Delhi worth more than Rs 300 crore for which money had come from unsecured interest free loans from DLF Ltd. When the Vadra-DLF land scam surfaced, the Congress ruled out any discussion on the issue in Parliament, saying he is a private person. Haryana cadre IAS officer Ashok Khemka who consistently took on Vadra for controversial land deals in Gurgaon was then stonewalled by the Congress Government of Haryana. Then, the BJP in opposition demanded a Supreme Court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) to examine Vadra land deals in Congress-ruled Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan. Further the party said that the SIT should be a multi-disciplinary authority to examine the alleged violation of company law, banking law and income tax law through these land deals purely supervised by the apex court.
Now, with another major allegation of corruption, it is expected that an independent and all-encompassing enquiry should be conducted in regard to the wide spectrum of scams and deals that involve Vadra so far. A detailed investigation of this kind involving people making claims and counter-claims to save Vadra must be made public, irrespective of the party in power. Realising the snowball effect of the issue, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has come out in full defence of her son-in-law. To her and the Congress, allegations against Vadra are political vendetta with the NDA Government at the Centre purposefully harassing the Gandhi family (now no more the first family) and the coterie around it.
The saddest part of the whole narrative is that today no Congressman is giving priority to the party. As the country struggles to meet the basic needs of the masses, the economic playing field tilting too far in favour of the the kith and kin of the political class, sends a wrong message. Today Indian voters can no more be fooled in the name of roti, kapda and makaan, they need to be treated as ‘glocal' citizens. The Congress will be scripting its own end by appointing Rahul Gandhi as chief. Add to that the burden of Vadra and the Congress's fall will be imminent. A pertinent question arises here: Is there a genuine problem in prosecuting the members of the Nehru-Gandhi clan who ruled the country for more than half the post-independent era or is there a lack of political will to rein them in? Any ordinary Indian today will definitely feel that the Nehru-Gandhis are above the long arm of the law, especially if even the anti-Congress establishment led by Narendra Modi fails to bring the Nehru-Gandhis to justice. This should not happen. The Gandhis should be treated like any other and the law must be allowed to take its own course.
