B.RAMAN
The various allegations made against Shri Robert
Vadra, the husband of Ms Priyanka Gandhi and the son-in-law of Mrs.Sonia
Gandhi,the President of the Congress, fall into two categories----criminal and
ethical.
2.The criminal allegations relate to accumulation
of wealth beyond his known sources of income.
3. The other allegations relating to the favours
shown to him by the DLF in matters of loans, advances and under-estimation of
property value would indicate, if established to be true, a pattern of
unethical and not illegal conduct by Shri Vadra.
4.All these allegations, even if they remain
allegations without proof, will have their political fall-out in influencing
the perceptions of large sections of the
people regarding Ms.Priyanka Gandhi, Mrs.Sonia Gandhi and the Congress.
5. The allegations have to be countered at the
political, ethical and legal levels. The political counter has to come from
Mrs.Sonia Gandhi in her capacity as the Congress President and the authorised
spokespersons of her party. The objective of the political counter would be to
prevent Mrs.Sonia Gandhi, Ms.Priyanka Gandhi and the Congress from being
tainted by the alleged wrong-doings of Shri Vadra and to convince the public that whatever
Shri Vadra did was in his individual capacity and that the party, its President
and daughter cannot be blamed for his actions.
6. For this purpose, it is quite legitimate for
Mrs.Sonia Gandhi to direct the spokespersons of her party to interact with the
media and appear on TV channels to refute any allegations against the Congress,
Mrs.Sonia Gandhi and Ms.Priyanka Gandhi.
7. The allegations of an ethical nature have to be
countered by Shri Vadra and the DLF company through their personal and
institutional explanations to the public. The DLF has sought to do this to some
extent, but Shri Vadra has avoided doing this and has sought to take a holier
than thou attitude.
8.On the criminal allegation regarding accumulation
of wealth beyond his known sources of income, the Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) has to take cognisance of the published reports and initiate the
following action:
( i). Register a Preliminary Enquiry Report (PER)
summarising the allegations publicly made against Shri Vadra and start a PE
into these allegations.
( ii ). Issue a written directive to Shri Vadra to
submit a list of his movable and immovable assets, a collation of his sources
of income, a list of his bank accounts and Xerox coplies of his banking
transactions and income-tax returns.
(iii ).Scrutinise the documentary evidence so
submitted by Shri Vadra and reach a conclusion as to whether his known sources
of income would have legitimately enabled him to acquire all the property owned
by him.
( iv ).If the conclusion is that the accumulation
of wealth by Shri Vadra was in order, inform him and the public and close the
PE into the criminal allegations.
( v ). On the other hand, if the conclusion is
otherwise, register a First Information Report (FIR) against Shri Vadra and
take up a formal investigation for determining whether he should be arrested
and prosecuted.
9.In this connection, the fielding of senior members
of the Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh and the
Governor of Karnataka to certify his business transactions as above board
without a formal PE as required under the laws relating to corruption and income tax evasion is not
only unethical and irregular, but also illegal. The interventions of these representatives
of the Government in order to discount in advance the need for any PE amounts
to attempts to obstruct and influence the course of justice in order to ensure
that the law does not take its course against Shri Vadra.
10.By pronouncing , without an enquiry, Shri Vadra
innocent, these Ministers can be held to be trying to influence the
investigating agencies not to go into the matter because Shri Vadra is a
privileged person related to Mrs.Sonia Gandhi and Ms.Priyanka Gandhi and is
above the law and any investigation.
11. It is not known whether the Ministers have
sought to intervene officially in a matter with possible criminal connotations
on their own to proclaim their loyalty to Mrs.Sonia Gandhi or at her instance
and whether Dr.Manmohan Singh, as the Prime Minister, has approved of their
actions.
12.If all these interventions have been made by the
Ministers without his knowledge and approval, it is time for him to call them
to order and to state clearly to the public that the Government headed by him
would not try to prevent or influence any follow-up action that may be required
under the law by agencies of the Government to investigate the allegations.
13.If Dr.Manmohan Singh strongly feels unhappy over
the actions of some of his Ministers, it is time for him to resign from office
instead of allowing the dignity and moral stature of his high office to be
tainted by their actions.
14. In the Watergate enquiry in the US, serious
allegations of obstruction of justice and prevention of enquiry by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were made against the then President Richard
Nixon and his aides, including the then acting Director of the FBI. When these
allegations were found to be true, he had to resign and his aides who sought to
obstruct justice and prevent the law from taking its course were prosecuted and
jailed.
15.Personally, Shri Vadra cannot be equated with
Nixon. He does not hold any office in the Government of India. Whatever
unethical or illegal acts he allegedly committed were in his individual capacity.
16. If an ordinary citizen of India had been
accused of such acts, large sections of the Governmental machinery would not
have activated itself or would not have been activated in order to protect him
from the arms of the law. The public perception will be that this has been done
in his case because he is the son-in-law of Mrs.Sonia Gandhi.
17. This matter should be debated in all its
details and implications in order to ensure that there is no attempt to prevent
the law from taking its course. ( 9-10-12)
(The writer
is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi,
and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate
of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter @SORBONNE75)
