National Herald case: Anti-climax after high drama; next hearing 20 February

In the late 1950s, the great Hindi novelist Bhagwati Charan Varma wrote a descriptive story of muscle-flexing by two warlords of Lucknow. At Lucknow’s Rakabganj crossing, they meet, throw tantrums, weigh each other and finally retreat into their respective cocoons by indulging in mutual appreciation of their prowess and popularity. A village bumpkin who watched this whole drama remarked at the end of it in local rural dialect, “Mula swang khoob kiyo (Alas! What a drama you did)”. It was beneath the warlords’ dignity to respond to the village idiot.

In the literary world, scripts are often prescient. Varma’s story seemed alive again at the Patiala court today. The principal cast of characters this time involved Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and the occasion was their appearance before the trial court over the National Herald case. It was a script finally enacted with great finesse. But finally it left many wondering what was the massive fuss all about.

Look at the similarities between the story and today’s drama. Right since morning, the build-up was such that the entire nation would wait in anticipation over what crisis would befall if the Gandhis appeared before the court. Though the charges against them are of criminal nature, Congress leaders have been crying hoarse over the “vindictive” approach of the government. All senior party leaders today came before the media and lambasted the Modi government for giving privileges to Subramanian Swamy who filed petition in the case. In the morning there were reports of Swami being given Z-category security and allotted a house in Lutyen’s Delhi.

Apparently Congress leaders had been flexing their muscles by mobilising thousands of workers on the streets of Delhi leading to the Patiala court where the case was to be heard. “We would not be intimidated by the government,” they said. Veteran leader Kamal Nath was more eloquent when he said, “Let the government decide what relations they want to have with the Opposition. If they want to have combative relations, we are ready for that.”

As the time for the appearance approached, Sonia and Rahul, followed by a bevy of top party leaders, marched to the court in a display of empty bravado which had no bearing on the case. On the other hand, the BJP leader and petitioner in the case Swamy has been tweeting all along that the appearance of Sonia and Rahul in the court would turn a new leaf in India’s political history. Inside the court, the matter got settled in less than two minutes as the judicial magistrate granted them bail.

What is curious is the fact that denouement of this high drama was known to both sides. But they have been building up a hysteria by playing up on emotions. First Rahul Gandhi started it by saying that he would rather like to go to the jail than ask for the bail. He seemed to have been wrongly advised that his incarceration would revive the fortune of the Congress in the same way as in the case of Indira Gandhi in 1978. Insiders in the party say it took lot of persuasive skill to convince Rahul about the futility of such endeavor. “It would have been suicidal to be seen as ranged against the judiciary,” they point out.

Having convinced Rahul Gandhi of the necessity of seeking bail, it became clear that the anti-climax after the build-up would come sooner than later. Swamy, on the other hand, was also aware of the fact that being an individual complainant in the case, he could not push the case any further. This is the precise reason that the court rejected his argument demanding impoundment of the passports of the accused. But at the end of it Swamy also claimed victory by implying that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi appeared as “accused” and asked for bail.

Interestingly, the BJP which delinked itself from the Swamy’s case is gleefully claiming that the implication of the AICC president and the vice president in a corruption case was an index of the Congress having dropped lower in people’s esteem. The irony is that not long ago the BJP’s two presidents — LK Advani and Bangaru Laxman — were implicated in corruption charges. Though Hawala case against Advani was dropped, Laxman was even jailed on bribery case.

But in the din of this contrived hubris and chest-thumping, the query of the village idiot “Alas! What a drama you did!” is bound to be lost.

NB: In a curious coincidence, the National Herald and its owner firm - Associated Journals Limited (AJL) - are based at Quaiserbagh, barely 2 km away from Rakabganj, the setting of Do Banke’s plot.