Has Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi benefited financially from Young Indian?
No. As directors or shareholders of Young Indian, a non-profit, Section 25 company, they are prohibited by law from drawing (and have not drawn) any financial benefits from the company.
Have any assets been transferred from the Associated Journals Ltd to Young Indian?
No. All the assets and the income of AJL remain with the company. Not a single paisa has gone to YI, YI directors or YI shareholders.
Does YI today own the property owned by AJL?
No, both YI and AJL are separate entities. All assets and properties of AJL continue to remain with AJL.
Young Indian was created to usurp the property owned by AJL?
False. On the contrary, Young Indian, being a non-profit Section 25 company, as the major shareholder AJL, in fact, enhances the safeguards on the properties of AJL.
Why did the Congress party give loans of Rs 90 crore to AJL?
The Congress party financially supported AJL over several decades through the financial ill health of the company. This is reflected in the party's commitment to support AJL, the voice of the freedom movement. The founding document of AJL from 1937, that is, the company's Memorandum of Association, states in Object (t): "The policy of any newspaper, periodical, magazine or journal issued by the Company shall generally be in accordance with the policy and principles of the Indian National Congress." This demonstrates the inextricable link between AJL and the Congress party from AJL's inception. The Congress party sought to fulfil its own objects by supporting AJL.
Why did AJL not go to a bank in 2010 to repay its Rs 90 crore debt?
There was a Rs 90 crore loan from the Congress party on AJL's balance sheet. No commercial bank was willing to lend a single rupee to AJL due to the negative worth of the company, its meagre income and its over-levered balance sheet.
How bad was AJL's financial position?
After AJL's debt of Rs 90 crore was extinguished in February 2011, AJL was able to declare its first profit in several years in 2011-12 and came into the black from the red.
Why were the assets of AJL not liquidated?
The majority of AJL's properties were government leases, which prohibited sale of land.
Edited excerpts of FAQs issued by the Congress party
