Jaitley-Cong tug of war over Herald case

New Delhi: Congress calls it political vendetta or “witch-hunt” while Arun Jaitley finds it a “strong case” against the Gandhis in the National Herald issue. On Tuesday, the day on which the National Herald case involving a tax inquiry against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, is being taken up in a Delhi court, Congress reacted sharply to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the case against Gandhis is “prima facie strong”.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, “The fact that the Finance Minister chose to comment reinforces the perception that here is a government which is motivated both by malice and vendetta in order to try and settle political scores.”

Jaitley had, in an interview to a TV channel, alleged that Congress leaders had given a Rs 96-crore loan out of tax exempted money to a newspaper company, National Herald, which, he said, was taken over by a property company. “So today, money collected for an exempted purpose passes from a newspaper which doesn’t exist and ends up with a company which only owns property and earns rents,” Jaitley said.

The National Herald newspaper, set up by Jawaharlal Nehru before Independence, was closed down in 2008. A firm called Young Indian became its publisher under the name. A majority stake in Young Indian is owned by the Gandhis. 

A complaint by BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy alleges that Congress broke the law by loaning money to Young Indian, and that the Gandhis aimed to grab property worth thousands of crores that belonged to the publishing company.

To Congress’ argument that Young Indian is not a property company, the Finance Minister said, ” Congress party’s function was not to collect rents from properties…The tax department is entitled to know that if money is collected for an exempted purpose, then how has the money landed for a non-exempted purpose?”
 

“There is no truth in the media reports of an Enforcement Directorate inquiry in the National Herald Case. A political party can’t benefit from tax exemption and then become a property company,” added Jaitley.