Battered by the Robert Vadra episode, the Congress party has now swung into preemptive damage control, going overboard to ‘project’ and ‘protect’ the image of the Congress scion Rahul Gandhi. The party today held an unscheduled press conference and hailed as “landmark” the apex court judgement that dismissed as "baseless and without substance" the petition alleging rape charges against Rahul Gandhi.
Prior to that on Wednesday evening within hours of former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, accusing Rahul Gandhi of defrauding the exchequer and undervaluing a plot of land he had bought in Haryana, the Congress came out with its official response, rebutting all the charges bolstering its arguments with precise details of the amount paid and stamp duty submitted.
The Congress party it appears is going all out to ensure that the ‘taint’ charge does not singe any other member of the Gandhi family. The revelations about the financial dealings of Congress President’s son- in -law Robert Vadra and realty giant DLF, has badly singed the party and unlike the endless list of scams, this was the first time that fingers were being raised directly at 10, Janpath.
While the Congress party had gone all guns blazing, defending Vadra, Congressmen confess that the Vadra episode had “dented the party’s public perception.” It did not help that Vadra worsened the situation with his “Mango people and Banana Republic” comment.
The party’s image having already taken a beating, the attempt now is to weed out any allegations that could possible harm the Congress scion Rahul Gandhi’s image, which would possibly explain the Congress media over drive in the past 24 hours.
AICC media department Chairperson Janardan Dwivedi describing the Supreme court judgement as “landmark” said, "it is dangerous for politics the way today very cheap, very low level allegations are bring traded in the political arena."
In a late night press release on Wednesday the party had while categorically dismissing Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala’s charges that the 6.456 acres land was bought by Gandhi for Rs 26, 47,000 at a rate of Rs 4,10,006 per acre. The six per cent stamp duty that was paid on it was Rs 1,58,820. The release stated that the prevailing Collector rate at the time of the sale for ‘sailab’ land was only Rs 1,50,000 per acre.
Incidentally, the party can ill afford to have Gandhi’s image in any way, at a time when Rahul Gandhi is all set to take on a “bigger role”. While it is not clear what that role of Gandhi who is still a Congress general secretary will be whether in the government or in the party; nonetheless his elevation is on the cards.
Rahul Gandhi in the past two days, has met both the President Pranab Mukherjee and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While this has fuelled speculation of whether he would be joining the Cabinet when a reshuffle is imminent, senior Congress leaders confide that it is unlikely that he would be taking on a ministerial berth. The infeasibility of having the Congress scion in the Cabinet as an alternate power centre to the prime minister is apparent.
As a young Congress MP close to Gandhi said, “It is most likely that RG will take on a larger role within the organization and he has already started working towards it.”
