National Herald case against Sonia, Rahul: Is it political vendetta by BJP?

Summons to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday for allegedly converting “public money to personal use” to acquire assets worth Rs 2,000 crore of The Associated Journals Ltd have clearly set the scenario for another face off between the BJP and Congress. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by just paying Rs 50 lakh by which a private firm Young India obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore which the AJL had owed to the Congress party. The court, in its order on Thursday, said, “From the complaint and the evidence led so far, it appears that YI was in fact created as a sham or a cloak to convert public money to personal use or as a special purpose vehicle for acquiring control over Rs 2000 crores worth of assets of The Associated Journals Ltd.(AJL). [caption id=“attachment_1590529” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  In trouble. PTI[/caption] “Since all the accused persons have allegedly acted in consortium with each other to achieve the said nefarious design, there are sufficient grounds for proceeding against all of the.” Young Indian Ltd was incorporated in 2010 to take over the “debt” of AJL, the publisher of the presently defunct National Herald. Even before the court could decide the merits of the case, the political mudslinging soon began. “The magistrate concerned is not part of the politics or of any political party. It is not blind prejudice. A prima facie case has been discovered which is worthy of much more consideration than merely trashing it as a political attack,” BJP leader Mahesh Jethmalani told CNN-IBN during a panel discussion. Senior journalist Kumar Ketkar felt that the case was politically motivated. “This is a politics of vendetta. It is completely wrong to say Rahul is guilty or not guilty even before the courts decide. Subramanian Swamy’s main enemy is not the Congress but the Nehru-Gandhi family. This is a repeat of 1977. It is all expected,” Ketkar said. The BJP leader immediately rebutted Ketkar’s observation. “Sonia and Rahul are the principal accused. They together own 76 percent in Young Indian which is a private firm. The other biggest beneficiaries of the deal are Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda. There is a collusion between AJL and the Congress. It seems to be a case of money laundering. It is sad to be called a political vendetta. It is not a 1977 type of situation as Swamy is a private citizen. The 1977 cases were filed by the government. There is a big difference,” Jethmalani said. Senior journalist Siddharth Varadarajan smelled something fishy about the whole deal. “How does the Congress allow a loan to the tune of Rs 90 crore? How does this become a private property? The transaction is wrong at so many levels in terms of Company Law, Rights of Shareholders etc. The Congress may have a reason why they have done it,” Varadarajan said.