Sonia, Rahul to do a ‘Dandi’ march on Dec 19 for Court appearance

Congress is planning to use the court appearance of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on December 19 in the national herald case into a political opportunity by marching to the Patiala house courts with thousands of supporters including party MP’s and Congress CM’s. It will be the Congress’s present day version of the dandi march of the march to rally support, Sonia Gandhi had earlier marched to Manmohan Singh’s residence to rally support for the former Premier after the coal gate allegations had surfaced.

Sources told NewsMobile that all Congress MP’s have been told to stay put in the national capital on Saturday and Congress CM’s have also been told to reach New Delhi. The local party unit the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee has also been asked to mobilize the workers who will march with the senior Congress leaders for the court appearance.
While a decision is yet to be reached if they will apply for a bail, there are two schools of thoughts within the party, the first one has advocated that both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi shouldn’t apply for bail. However some believe that Sonia Gandhi should apply for bail because of her ill health while Rahul will not apply for bail.

The internal calculations of the party strategists is that the court appearance will help reinforce the political vendetta charge against the government and the media coverage of this will provide some sympathy for the party.
The two leaders are scheduled to face a Delhi court over alleged charges that they illegally acquired property worth Rs. 5,000 crore belonging to the National Herald newspaper. A charge denied by the Congress leadership.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy filed the case in a local court in 2012. The trial court had issued summons to the two leaders among others in June 2014 but they approached the Delhi High Court seeking a stay. On Monday, the high court refused to stay the summons.

The Associated Journals Limited – which published the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Jawahar Lal Nehru – and its assets and liabilities were acquired by a company named Young Indian in which the Congress president and her son hold more than three fourths equity.

The Gandhis own 38 per cent shares each in the company and the remaining shares are held by Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey. Congress leader and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal today said the company is like a trust under the law and the directors do not earn anything from it.

National Herald went out of print in 2008. At that time, the parent company had an unpaid debt of Rs. 90 Crores.

In the month after it was set up, the Young Indian board of directors passed a resolution to ‘own’ National Herald’s outstanding debt. Mr Swamy alleges that debt – largely, the loan taken from the Congress Party – was made possible because the directors of Young Indian are top Congress leaders. Mr Vora was chief managing director of Associated Journals and is treasurer of the Congress.

The Congress says it gave the loan because the party’s objectives matched National Herald’s. BJP leaders say the Congress enjoys income tax exemption under law for being a political party and cannot divert its funds to a commercial entity.

Mr Swamy’s petition alleges that for an extra Rs. 50 Lakh Young Indian bought the entire share equity of Associated Journals. In the meanwhile, the Congress wrote off the loan as irrevocable.

Mr Swamy alleges through the two decisions, Young Indian has acquired the complete ownership Associated Journals’ real estate – buildings in New Delhi, Lucknow, Bhopal, Indore, Mumbai, Panchkula, Patna and other places – worth at least Rs. 5000 crore by paying Rs. 50 lakh. Instead, some assets should have been liquidated to pay off the debt, the BJP leader contends.