Political Diary

New Delhi, 22 December2015

Sonia-Rahul Hazir Ho

JAITLEY CAUGHT IN CROSS HAIRS

By Poonam I Kaushish

Delhi is in the throes of two political nautankis. One, the hoopla surrounding Congress’ ma-beta Sonia-Rahul’s  appearance before a trial court in the National Herald case Saturday which ended in a damp squib. Two, the acerbic tu-tu-mein-mein between Aam Aadmi’s Delhi Chief Minister and NDA’s Modi Sarkar over the CBI’s raid on Kejriwal’s office vis-à-vis a corruption case against his Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar. Caught in this crosshair is Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rein as Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) with the devil taking the hindmost!

Indeed, if Sonia and Rahul had hoped to reap a political harvest to garner people’s sympathy by indulging in theatrical political brinkmanship in the National Herald case they seem to have miscalculated. In a blink-and-miss five minutes appearance at Delhi’s Patiala Court they were asked to furnish personal bail bonds of Rs 50,000 each with the case listed for next hearing on 20 February.

Undeniably, Sonia is busy trying to evoke her mother-in-law Indira, defiantly asserting, “Modi is falsely accusing us, we will not be scared…I appeared with a clean conscience. I am not scared. This is political vendetta,” cooed Rahul.

Alas, Sonia is no Indira Gandhi who had a deep understanding of political history, knew the art of politics and believed that every crisis presents an opportunity, Indira exploited her two brief spells in jail in October 1977 and a week in December 1978 to script her triumphant political comeback to power in 1980 and toss the squabbling Janata Party out.

Indira calculatedly turned her arrests into political shows by sheer defiance and symbolism of political martyrdom. I witnessed her first arrest on 3^rd October evening. “Handcuff me,” she said as an aghast Sonia readied her suitcase for jail. While Congress President Kamlapati Tripathi and other Partymen shed copious tears and flowers as she was led to the awaiting jeep.

In the first case in 1977 two charges were levelled against Ms Gandhi I whereby she was accused of pressuring two firms to supply 104 jeeps for her election campaigns and allegedly misusing her Prime Ministerial power by sanctioning an oil drilling contract to a French company, even though its bid was higher than a US company.

The Iron lady was again arrested in December 1978 by a bitterly fractious Janata Government, post her victorious return to the Lok Sabha from Karnataka’s Chikmagalur for “breach of privilege and contempt of Parliament by obstructing officials from gathering material for answering a question.” Ultimately the Janata Government shot itself in the foot.

True to form, the Congress heroine shrewdly turned the charges of corruption and excesses as a case of political revenge and scripted her return as Prime Minister in 1980 from Bihar’s Belchi where Dalits had been massacred. She captivated the nation by riding on an elephant through slush to reach the strife-torn district.  

Strangely, for reasons best known to Sonia’s Congress, it misguidedly believes that it can replicate Indira’s political savvy to garner people’s sympathy by playing the victim.  By the two cases are as different as chalk from cheese politically and legally.

Indira could play the victim because she was arrested and hounded for “breach of privilege and contempt of Parliament”. Sonia and Rahul are facing prima facie charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, breach of trust and dishonest misappropriation of property in the National Herald case. Two, the thumb rule in politics is that per se one fights for the poor and down-trodden not for one’s personal issue. 

Three, at the end of the day Sonia is not Indira’s daughter but draws power from her late husband Rajiv’s family lineage. She has not inherited the dynastic power genes. Four, even at the height of her dark days Indira had a brood of 153 Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha in 1977 while Sonia struggles with a miniscule 45 members in 2015.

At another level, Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal’s furious diatribe against the CBI raid on his Principal Secretary Ravinder Kumar at the Delhi Secretariat as political vendetta and an undeclared Emergency seems unfathomable. Akin, to his steadfastly pluming of his erstwhile Minister Jitender Tomar despite evidence of his faking his law degree. Only to eat his words.

Worse, Kejriwal hit a new low in politics by using intemperate language and calling Prime Minister Modi a “coward and psychopath”. Instead of apologizing, he tried to side-track the raid on his favoured bureaucrat by unleashing a volley of corruption charges against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who headed the Delhi & District Cricket Association 1999-2013.

Accusing Jaitley of being a “master of half-truths and beautiful lies,” AAP pointedly asked him five questions. One, who owns the 21st Century Company? And what is Lokesh Sharma's relation with Jaitley? Two, why did ONGC pay Rs five crores to Hockey India? Who pressurized the public sector firm?

Three, why “illegal” corporate boxes were made at Delhi's Ferozshah Kotla cricket ground and sub-leased? Four, who will account for the irregularities in the construction of the stadium for Rs 114 crores? While public sector firm EPIL was paid Rs. 57 crore who got the remaining money? Five, who head the contracted remaining nine companies?

According to the Corporate Affairs Ministry records the address of three listed companies --- Stream Marketing Private Limited, Ultimate IT Solutions Private Limited and Advent Trading Private Limited --- named in DDCA’s internal report for financial irregularities is the same.

A dilapidated dingy house housing a dairy, dispensary and dress shop in a labyrinth obscure lane in East Delhi town owned by a Naresh Sharma who is supposedly a director of one of the firms paid Rs 7.90 lakh to refurbish a section of the stadium. It’s another matter Sharma is clueless about the company and had never heard of DDCA. “I sell agarbatti door to door,” he plaintively says.

Jaitley, discounts these allegations, in fact he is proud of building a stadium for Delhi though he has not been associated with cricket administration since 2013. Besides, the allegation are old and the UPA Government had referred these to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office which had absolved him of any misdemeanour even as it found “certain irregularities/non-compliance or technical violations, but no fraud.”

However, the larger issue is not Kejriwal, Jaitley or corruption but why do our netas jostle and revel in heading various sports organization. What has rajniti got to do with khel-khud? Think. Over 40 sports associations, encompassing every game from archery to yachting is headed by a politician or his ‘chamcha’ for years on end. Primarily because they have everything to gain from it, massage their inflated egos, make money and distribute patronage.

All in all in this ongoing political khushti, the Congress must remember two things. ‘Iron lady’ Indira had an indomitable aura which is lacking in Sonia and Rahul has yet to prove himself.  Two, by trying to dig into its rich past for overcoming the challenges of the present does not always pay.

For Modi’s NDA the Sonia-Kejriwal frolics hold two important lessons. One, when you ride a tiger one better know how to dismount. Two, small minds, constricted souls and resentful hearts is a recipe for disaster. To govern a country one can have rivalry not enmity. Will our polity stop treating every issue as a boxing match. ------ INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)