National Herald case: Congress is cutting India's nose to spite its face

On Friday, proceedings in Parliament continued to be disrupted with Congress MPs refusing to relent on their vociferous protest against the government for what they claim is "political vendetta". The Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned more than once. It has been like this for the past four days ever since a trial court in Delhi issued summons to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, who is also the party vice-president, in what has come to be known as the 'National Herald Case'.

The questionable acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd, a public limited company and publisher of the now defunct newspaper National Herald, by Young Indian, a private limited company in which Sonia and Rahul own 38% shares each, has been in the news for some time. The details of how Congress funds were used for the transaction that has given Young Indian control over AJL's vast prime properties are by now well known and need not be recounted in detail.

Two points are of interest and merit elaboration. First, the National Herald case dates back to the time when Congress was in office as the head of the UPA government and Sonia wielded enormous power, though no accountability. Documents related to the AJL-Young Indian deal appeared in the public domain in 2012, a full two years before the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Second, Subramanian Swamy, who has taken the transaction to court alleging "criminal breach of trust", was not a member of the BJP in 2012-13. That he has since joined the BJP does not in any manner change the fact that the petition was filed by a private citizen and maintained by the judiciary.

Therefore, to allege, as the Congress is doing, that the National Herald case is a BJP-inspired litigation or harassment by proxy by the government of the day is at once far-fetched and untenable. Unless the Congress is insinuating that the judiciary, including the High Court of Delhi, is willing to do the bidding of the government. That would be tipping over into the dangerous zone of contempt which any well-wisher of the Congress and admirer of the Nehru Dynasty should try and avoid.

Ideally, the Congress should have responded to the court summons, issued after the High Court rejected the defendants' plea, with dignity. Sonia and Rahul should have said they would be present in court (which in any case they have agreed to do on December 19) and let the law take its own course. The numerous top gun lawyers in the Congress should have said they would contest and disprove Swamy's charge of criminal misdemeanour (which the court says is prima facie valid).

Instead, the only other national party's response has been anything but dignified. Flatterers have sensed an opportunity to demonstrate loyalty. Lawyers have betrayed a certain tasteless disdain for the judiciary and judicial process. The First Family of the Congress has been less than gracious.

"I am Indira Gandhi's daughter-in-law. I am not afraid," said Sonia in response to the summons. "This is pure vendetta coming out of the Prime Minister's Office," added Rahul. "This is political vendetta... Modi's dictatorship... Hitlership..." has been the subsequent loyalist refrain both inside and outside Parliament, prompting Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha PJ Kurien to quip, in half amusement and half puzzlement, "Why are you howling? It is not in human nature to howl."

Not surprisingly, the Trinamool Congress has come out in support of the Congress and the Dynasty. The TMC's top leaders are facing prosecution for benefiting from chit fund scams and the party's boss Mamata Banerjee has similarly claimed "political vendetta" as the heat generated by the CBI's investigation threatens to singe, if not scorch her. It makes sense to make common cause.

Surprisingly, though, the Aam Aadmi Party, which has made a fetish of fighting corruption and misuse of office for self, has maintained a loud silence on the National Herald Case. So loud that Delhi is awash with stories of an AAP-Congress alliance in the making as part of a 'Mahagathbandhan' to take on the NDA and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.

But corruption has never succeeded in trouncing political expediency. At the moment, the ongoing sideshows of stated and unstated solidarity with the Congress are not really overwhelmingly important. At best they indicate the direction of future winds.

What should concern everyone, especially those who worry about the revival of India's economy without which neither jobs nor development would happen, is the disruption of proceedings in Parliament. There are many who see nothing wrong with this; after all the BJP did it too when in Opposition. That's whataboutery at best and chicanery at worst. It could be argued if the BJP's stalling of parliamentary proceedings was wrong, it does not make the Congress's disruptive tactics right. More importantly, as someone acidly commented on Twitter, "The BJP stalled proceedings to protest Congress's corruption; the Congress is doing the same to protest Congress's corruption".

Popular perception is not influenced in the Congress's favour given the present circumstances. Arguably, corruption per se is never a clincher of an election issue or else Lalu Prasad Yadav, convicted of corruption and out on bail, would not have succeeded in winning more seats for his party RJD than Nitish Kumar could for his JDU in the Bihar Assembly election. But the Congress would be committing a huge mistake in copying the Lalu Model. The crafty meshing of identity politics and community votes in caste-ridden Bihar helped Lalu Prasad Yadav. That advantage does not accrue to the Congress.

More importantly, India was a different country in 1975 when Mrs Indira Gandhi could thumb her nose at the judiciary, bank on 'committed judges', and impose Emergency with impunity after the Allahabad High Court judgement unseated her from Parliament and disqualified her from contesting elections. Forty years later, it would be disastrous for Mrs Indira Gandhi's daughter-in-law to attempt a replay of her mother-in-law's brazen bravado. Nor should Sonia bank on recreating her mother-in-law's post-1977 victimhood narrative. Like Morarji Desai, Narendra Modi may be a Gujarati, stern and puritan, but the comparison does not extend any further. The two, to use a cliche, are as different as chalk and cheese as are the Janata and NDA governments. 

Equally important is the fact that unlike the Shah Commission of Inquiry, the judiciary is not a creation of the government. Narendra Modi may be a Gujarati, stern and puritan, but the comparison does not extend any further. The two, to use a cliche, are as different as chalk and cheese as are the Janata and NDA Governments.

Wisdom demands that the Congress demonstrate maturity and display responsibility to remind people that it still remains a national party. Unless the disruption ends, the GST Bill will not pass in the Rajya Sabha and the April deadline for its implementation won't be met. Surely this fact is not lost on the Congress?

Or are we to assume that the Congress has decided not to allow any legislation to pass the Parliament's approval by blocking Bills in the Rajya Sabha under some excuse or the other? If the Congress strategy is to hobble the Modi government by blocking key legislation, then there is little to say. All that can be said is that this would amount to cutting India's nose to spite Congress's face.