Modi’s Dangerous Gambit As Tihar’s VIP Suite Awaits Gandhi Family Amid ED Crackdown
The Pahalgam terror attack may have overshadowed it and put things on hold for now, but the day may not be far when the Tihar jail authorities have to make special arrangements for their new VIP guests—the Gandhi family.
Before the Pahalgam incident, things were moving swiftly. The ED summoned Robert Vadra for two days of questioning over his alleged role in a lucrative Haryana land deal, where he reportedly made a neat profit of Rs 50.5 crore. He had bought 3.5 acres in Shikohpur village in February 2008 for Rs 3.5 crore and sold it to real estate giant DLF in September 2012 for Rs 58 crore.
So what? Business is about making money, and Vadra was already an entrepreneur before marrying Priyanka Gandhi, though he dealt in metals back then and then shifted to land only after the Congress party came to power in 2004. But the Shikohpur deal had a catch. Either he had a premonition or prior knowledge that land prices around the village would skyrocket due to some future policies of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in Haryana.
Vadra’s questioning was followed by the ED seeking a Delhi court’s permission to question the Congress party’s first family, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, in the National Herald case. Legally, a court notice is required before taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed against them and others.
If one thought Vadra’s Rs 50.5 crore profit on barren land was impressive, the ED claims the Gandhis outdid him. They allegedly acquired assets worth Rs 2,000 crore from National Herald’s parent company, Associated Journals Limited, by giving it a mere Rs 50 lakh loan through Young Indian Private Limited, where the mother-son duo holds a 76 per cent stake. The profit? A staggering Rs 988 crore.
The Court will rule on issuing the notice to them on May 2, and one can expect more street theatrics from the party workers, who have God-like faith in the Gandhi family, and like God, Gandhis cannot be wrong.
Recently, the ED had questioned Rashtriya Janata Dal’s first family also in the land-for-jobs scandal allegedly done while Lalu Prasad Yadav served as the Union railway minister. Their focus was Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav, a strong contender for the chief minister’s post in the Bihar Assembly election later this year.
Whether it’s the Haryana land deal, the National Herald case, or the land-for-jobs scam, these old cases have been gathering dust in ED files for years. The sudden urgency with which the central agencies have swung into action raises suspicions that Vadra, Sonia, Rahul, and Tejashwi could soon face arrest. The opposition will cry political vendetta, while the government insists that the law is simply taking its course.
The bigger question is whether the Modi government has decided it’s time they pay for their alleged misdeed and send them to prison. If so, it would mark a shift from an unspoken rule in Indian politics of levelling serious corruption charges before elections and pushing them under the carpet after coming to power.
The Modi government seemed to follow this rule, doing little during its first decade in power. After all, the Congress never pursued charges against Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s son-in-law, Ranjan Bhattacharya, despite levelling allegations against him when Vajpayee was prime minister.
Corruption charges against politicians are nothing new. India has countless rags-to-riches stories of leaders amassing fortunes worth billions of rupees from humble or poor beginnings. Only a handful, like Sukh Ram, J. Jayalalithaa, Lalu Yadav, and Om Prakash Chautala, could count themselves as unlucky as they faced consequences with jail terms.
Most, like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Punjab’s Badals, Sharad Pawar, and many others, thrived despite allegations of owning assets beyond known incomes. They were never questioned, arrested or punished.
Is Modi becoming too brave, and is acting against the Gandhi family politically prudent? It is still believed that but for the misadventure of then union home minister Chaudhary Charan Singh in ordering the arrest of Indira Gandhi in 1977, the Janata Party experiment would not have failed, and Indira Gandhi may not have returned to power in 1980.
Indira Gandhi was arrested in October 1977 on two different corruption charges, and she remained in detention for only 16 hours before getting bail. But that one act portrayed her as a victim in the public eye, and the Morarji Desai government was accused of vendetta since Indira, as the prime minister, had got them all arrested during the Emergency.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi understands two fundamental truths about Indian politics: Public memory is notoriously short, and corruption has not yet become an issue that can make or break the electoral fortunes of a leader or a dynasty. Unless the ED possesses ironclad evidence that will stand judicial scrutiny, the BJP government risks handing the moribund Congress party exactly what it needs: a fresh lease of life and a powerful victimhood narrative.
The coming weeks will show whether this is a political masterstroke or a historic blunder. But one thing is clear: when you go after the country's most famous political dynasty, you'd better not miss.
Ajay Jha is a senior journalist, author and political commentator.
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