There can be little doubt that the real implications of the National Herald case are political. It’s just not a matter of top Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi — as individuals alleged to have engaged in a criminal act — having to present themselves in a trial court at the stage of procedures prior to the framing of charges. Evidently, the case was brought by senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in order to degrade the Nehru-Gandhis’ political equity. It is doubtful if Dr Swamy would have been attracted to the idea of this high-stakes legal challenge, impleading himself in the matter of the debt-laden Associated Journals Ltd, which published the newspaper National Herald that was founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, being taken over by Young India, a newly-started not-for-profit Section 25 company in which Sonia and Rahul own 76 per cent of the shares, had the principal holders been other Congress figures, not the Gandhis. Fully aware of the law, Dr Swamy himself is likely to appreciate the fact that the Gandhis — mother and son — would not be able to take one paisa out of AJL or YI even if they had held 100 per cent of the equity. This is too basic to need any further elaboration.
The entire matter is shot through with a political motive and a political bias. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, like top leaders of any political party, are animated by ideology and politics. It is unrealistic to expect that they will simply go home to tea or dinner after their court appearance, as their political opponents may have desired. The latter may perhaps worry that the Gandhis, with a Congress united behind them, would confront the political challenge politically, even as they respond to legal procedures through the courts. Fundamentally, the Gandhis have charged the Narendra Modi government and the Prime Minister himself with indulging in a “political vendetta” against the Gandhis, and the Opposition in general, and have resolved to not be cowed down.
It is worthy of note that after the Gandhis made it plain to a waiting party crowd at the Congress headquarters that the fightback had begun, JD(U) general secretary K.C. Tyagi told the media that his party would support the Congress in pushing back this “political vendetta”. In that sense, we may be seeing the first contours of the emergence of a broader Opposition unity against the government triggered by the National Herald case. In that sense this case is different from Bofors, when the entire political class went on a frontal attack against former PM Rajiv Gandhi and his family, although the case could not be proved in the end. There are surely some interesting times ahead.
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