Both Houses of Parliament were disrupted again on Wednesday by angry members of the Congress Party protesting the summons of the party's president and vice-president, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, by a Delhi court in a matter related to the transfer of control of the company that used to publish the National Herald newspaper. On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court rejected an attempt to exempt the two senior Congress leaders, among others charged in the case, from a personal appearance in court. The high court also said their conduct in the case "smacked of criminality". The Congress has declared that the case, which follows a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy, is part of a political "vendetta". The criminal case deals with charges of cheating and misappropriation of funds in the chain of events that included a large loan from the Congress' own treasury to the company controlling the National Herald being bought over by a third organisation at a fraction of the face value. As a consequence of the chain of transactions, control passed to a trust in which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were major shareholders. Mr Swamy's contention is that they thus illegally gained control of an entity with substantial and valuable real-estate holdings.
The facts of the case and whether or not the Gandhis' behaviour was criminal will be established by the legal process. It is to be hoped a resolution will be swift, since it is not in the interest of Indian politics or faith in the judicial system for such a high-profile case to be left hanging. The question, however is this: What does this have to do with the functioning of Parliament? If there is indeed a political vendetta being launched against the Opposition, then the leaders of the Congress surely must make their case on the floor of the very Houses that they are instead choosing to disrupt. This decision to disrupt is both irresponsible and impolitic. It is irresponsible because Parliament has a great deal of pending legislation, including important economic reform bills, that it must discuss. And it is impolitic because it only enhances the impression that the Congress Party is now nothing more than a support system for the Gandhi family - of which the alleged appropriation of party resources by the family in the National Herald case is only one illustration.
The Gandhis and the others associated with them in the case - including former National Knowledge Commission member Sam Pitroda - are to appear in the trial court on December 19. What is the Congress' endgame? Will it continue to disrupt Parliament every day till then? In this din, it is far from clear what specific accusations it is, in fact, making. Is it levelling charges on the independence of the judiciary? After all, the problem was precipitated by an order from a high court judge. The party is losing credibility by the minute. If it wishes to retain any, it must make a coherent and sensible political case for this alleged "vendetta" on the floor of the House and submit it to the judgment of the people of India.
