Resentment shows up as Robert Vadra support issue ‘breaks up’ Congress

New Delhi: Strong resentment is brewing within the Congress over the party being “forced” to come out in support of party chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra.

While Congress leader Sandeep Diskhit has openly come out against Mr Vadra, sources said a majority of senior leaders were “not too happy” with its repeated moves to rally around the controversial figure.

Recently, when Mr Vadra manhandled a television reporter who asked him about his controversial land deals, Congress leaders were made to rush to the defence of the son-in-law of the Gandhi clan.

Now questions are being raised in hushed voices by senior leaders on why the Congress was “officially supporting an individual who is not even a member of the party”.

While Sandeep Dikshit openly voiced his displeasure at Mr Vadra’s manhandling of a journalist, other leaders too were against the party defending him.

It was also noted that “since Vadra himself is running away from pointed and uncomfortable questions by the media, why should the party stick its neck out?”

Some Congress spin doctors also noted that the entire exercise of “defending” Mr Vadra was “severely denting the party’s image”.

Some senior Congress leaders felt Mr Robert Vadra had become a “major liability” for the Congress, rather than an “asset”.

One leader noted this was not the “first time Vadra has embarassed the party”, referring to when he described ordinary Indians (aam aadmi) as “mango people”, and called India a “banana republic”.

Mr Vadra’s land deals was one of the BJP’s major electoral planks in Haryana.

In the AICC corridors there’s also a feeling that Ms Priyanka Gandhi’s major stumbling block for entering active politics was the contentious land deals of her husband, Vadra.

Some senior leaders felt that the moment Priyanka Gandhi entered active politics, the Modi government might just start attacking Vadra.

With Vadra enjoying all the privileges of a VIP which range from SPG protection to security waiver at airport the argument being put forward by Congress spokespersons that “ he is a private individual falls flat,” the leaders argued.

Before manhandling the scribe, reports were also published that the comptroller and auditor general has faulted Vadra’s land deals in Haryana, saying he reaped nearly Rs 44 crore in windfall gains because an indulgent Congress government allowed him to do so in breach of law, and did not insist on recovering Rs 41.51 crore of the profit he made by quickly selling the land to DLF Universal.