It was bound to happen. Demoralised after the Bihar election verdict, Modi supporters (or Bhakts if you want) have exploded with joy and celebrations. The Delhi High court has dismissed the petition filed by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora, Sam Pitroda and others to quash the summons issued to them by a trial court over the notorious National Herald case. If the Supreme Court doesn't provide quick relief, key members of the First Family of India will have to appear in front of the trial court tomorrow (December 8, 2015) to face charges that essentially boil down to cheating and fraud. This is no small matter. Sonia and Rahul are now the ACCUSED in a criminal case. In another development, The Indian Express reported today (7 December) that the Justice Dhingra Commission appointed by the Haryana government to look into dubious land deals during the tenure of the previous Bhoopinder Singh Hooda government is all set to issue summons to Robert Vadra. He is not an accused yet, but who knows what lies in store after the Commission keeps its promise to submit its findings and report by mid next year? The man responsible for the legal troubles confronting the Gandhis is the irrepressible Subramaniam Swamy while whistle blower bureaucrat Ashok Khemka is the one who blew the lid off the land deals of Robert Vadra and his real estate companies.
Interestingly, both the “cases” can be traced back to the early days of the second term of the UPA when the Gandhis appeared invincible and dynasty sycophants-including many notables in mainstream media-were preparing for Rahul Gandhi becoming the Prime Minister of India. Even more interesting, both cases are related to real estate, or allegations of acquiring valuable real estate through dubious means. In the case of Robert, it has been alleged that government favors enabled him to convert an investment of a few lakh rupees to real estate worth more than Rs 500 crore in Gurgaon. In the National Herald case, it has been alleged that some clever accounting and gross impropriety (bordering on criminality) enabled Sonia and Rahul Gandhi to invest just Rs 50 lakh and gain complete control over real estate assets whose worth is estimated to be in the range of Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.
Modi supporters are jubilant no doubt, but given the pace at which such cases move in India,Mir could well be a long, long time before Sonia, Rahul and Robert are finally convicted or acquitted. In the National Herald case, Dr. Swamy first made his allegations public in November, 2012. Neither the then UPA government, nor the mainstream media took him seriously. Not many bothered when he filed a case in a trial court in Delhi. But all hell broke loose in June, 2014 when the trial accused found the charges leveled by Dr Swamy to have prima facie value and summoned Sonia and Rahul to appear before it to face the charges. A battery of legal luminaries like Kapil Sibal, Dr A. M Singhvi, Manish Tiwari and others then approached the Delhi High Court to quash the summons. It took almost 18 months and a change of judges for the appeal to be dismissed. Who knows how long the case will last in the trial court ? And then there will be appeals in the High Court and the Supreme Court. Do remember, it took almost 18 years each for former chief minister and current flavor of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav and current chief minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalitha to be convicted. Both quickly got relief in the form of bail. Gandhi family supporters can take comfort from the fact that serious corruption charges and sometimes even convictions do not dent the popularity of political leaders. Lalu Yadav and Jayalalitha are classic examples.
There is not enough space in a single piece to give gory details of the two cases. But there can be no doubt that the consequences will travel far beyond court rooms. Sonia, Rahul and Robert, and their army of supporters and sycophants in Luytens Delhi will call all this a vindictive move by the Modi regime. It would be interesting to see what happens now to the Parliament session. Does this mean the end of the GST Bill? Some journalist friends tell me that the Gandhis might decide to do a repeat of the late Indira Gandhi when she faced charges during the Janata Party regime in 1978. Can they?
