No Punches Pulled: Sonia knows Vadra need not fear 'justice'

 

Let us begin with a simple question. If, as the Congress boss Sonia Gandhi insists, Robert Vadra is a private citizen, then why does she and everyone else in the party feel obliged to defend him every time a new scandal involving him hits the headlines? 

The answer is pretty simple. 

For all practical purposes, Vadra's indefensible actions the Congress Party feels duty-bound to defend because virtually all of these are inextricably linked to the fact that he is the son-in-law of the Congress President. Were he not married into the Congress’s 'First Family', even a four-anna party worker would refuse to give him the time of the day.
  

Period.
    

Therefore, it is not surprising that Sonia Gandhi has once again risen in defence of her son-in-law, who this past week featured in a brand-new scandal. This time the dirty doings of a notorious middle man for multi-crore defence deals have landed the Congress’s son-in-law into a public scandal. 

 

Read more: 

 

A homeopath’s son, Sanjay Bhandari switched trades to make huge amounts of money through brokering in defence purchases. And he enlisted the services of the one man who had the capability to bend the UPA Government to his will - Robert Vadra.

    
Since the incriminating e-mails revealing the benami London home of the infamous son-in-law are already in public domain, let us consider the defence of Vadra by his mother-in-law. Speaking in Rae Bareli the other day, she challenged the Modi Government to investigate Vadra and to file charges if any evidence of wrong-doing was found. 

    
The line of argument is familiar. P. Chidambaram had adopted the same line to defend his son, Karti. In response to the remarks of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Chidambaram had said that instead of debating the alleged scams of Karti in Parliament, the right thing for the NDA Government would be to launch prosecution in a court of law.

 
Far from revealing any desire to get at the truth in the plethora of corruption charges against crooked sons and sons-in-law of powerful politicians, such touching faith in the judiciary only exposes the inherently flawed justice system which can be gamed through derailed investigations, misdirected prosecutions and unconscionable delays and diversionary tactics in courtrooms. 

 

Read more: 

After all, the way the system failed to nail Sonia Gandhi’s close family friend Ottavio Quattrochhi, the real  bribe-taker in the Bofors scam, it can only give hope to every Karti Chidambaram and Robert Vadra to persist in their ways. 

Governments can well change hands, but there is little prospect of the justice system ever nailing the crooks, especially if they happen to be closely connected to powerful politicians or large moneybags. 

Indeed, our fear is that should Dawood Ibrahim somehow be caught, the  system will fail to convict him, (though a benign judge might ensure his  detention in jail without bail for an indefinite period). It is unfortunate but true that justice is mostly meted out, if at all, to the poor and the helpless alone. 

   
Corruption and politics having become inseparable twins. A vast majority of enormously wealthy politicians, who are now household names, had started their careers as dirt-poor candidates. Mahatma Gandhi was so disgusted with the corruption of the first lot of Congress ministers in the 1937 provincial governments that he threatened to sever his ties with the party. He was eventually persuaded not to, in the larger interest. 

 

Read more: 

Nehru failed to put even a single Congressman in jail despite the cancer of corruption spreading wide and far under his watch.

The point is that Congress politicians are very well experienced in deflecting charges of corruption. When a Chidambaram or a Sonia Gandhi dares the Modi Government to try their near and dear ones in a court of law, they do not so much deny wrong-doing as reveal their faith in a system which can  be easily gamed to protect wrong-doers. 

In particular, Chidambaram should know that his sneering and superior manner does not at all mask the fact that in every ministerial charge he has held, beginning in the mid-80s, he has figured in one or the other scandal. He might have got away so far, but from all available evidence this time it might be hard  to save his son. 

Meanwhile, the voters cannot escape blame for encouraging political corruption. Unless they punish it during elections, there will be no disincentive against corrupt politicians. But the way political dynasties have flourished, from the Karunanidhis and the Pawars to Laloo and Mulayam Yadavs, and of course the Gandhis, it would seem that corruption is a non-issue, to be exploited by politicians to embarrass one another without actually anyone wanting to stamp it out. 

Therefore, regardless of the seriousness of the latest charges against Vadra and Karti, nothing is likely to come out of them. They would go scot free, the real reason why Chidambaram and Sonia have such touching faith in the 'system.'     

Focus now on Rajya Sabha 

 

Following the on-going biennial polls to the Rajaya Sabha, the Lok Sabha would further recede into the background as top guns on both sides of the political divide concentrate on the Upper House. The Congress’s firepower will increase further with Chidambaram and, most likely, Kapil Sibal and Jairam Ramesh bolstering the Opposition thunder. 

It is however on the Samajwadi benches that more interesting things are set to happen. The return of the prodigal Amar Singh to Mulayam Singh’s party means that there will be a frisson of excitement and tension in the SP ranks, with the incorrigible Singh seeking to dominate the proceedings. 

 

Samajwadi MPs such as Jaya Bachchan, Naresh Aggarwal or Ram Gopal Yadav, who bitterly opposed the return of Singh might find themselves upstaged, particularly since he has a way with words and a knack to insert himself in all situations promising high visibility. 

Happily, the Rajya Sabha might become the favoured forum for the display of the real cut and thrust of parliamentary debate with Arun Jaitley leading the charge from the ruling benches. He will be ably assisted by Smriti Irani and a number of newcomers, including Swapan Dasgupta, Subramanian Swamy, M J Akabar, etc. 

On the Congress side, though Chidambaram will be on the back-foot due to his dubious ministerial legacy and the misdoings of his son, he can still be relied upon to use interesting turns of phrases in his haughty and overbearing manner. Both Sibal and Ramesh too are competent speakers though they often spoil their cause through great exaggeration. Remember Sibal and his 'zero loss in  2-G scam' theory?       

                               
Well-fed NGOwallas

 

 

You thought only politicians hold rent-a-crowd rallies? The Lawyers' Collective - which till the other day one had presumed did pro bono work, but one was disappointed to know this was not true - received enormous foreign funds and used some of it to hire people for organizing protest demonstrations, paying them fees, plus lunch money, for a few hours of slogan-shouting and placard-displaying. 

This was not expected from someone like Indira Jaising, an additional solicitor general in the UPA Sarkar. Besides, it was questionable whether using foreign funds for private foreign jaunts was kosher with the donors. 

Our quarrel with the NGOwallas is simple: Want to do good? Improve the lot of the people? Save humanity from sinners and evil-doers? Very well, do it by all means. But do it on your time and with your money. Taking money to do good only means, in a majority of cases, a lack of opportunities elsewhere. 'Kaam na chaley to social worker ban ja' (If you have no work, become a social worker) is the new slogan of the entrepreneurs of the cottage  industry of NGOs.  

Just one question

 

 

If stupendous failure as Congress Vice-President can result in Rahul Gandhi being kicked up to the President’s post, where will Congressmen kick him if he fails as party chief as well?  

 

 

Virendra Kapoor is a Delhi-based journalist. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Asianet Newsable