Hyderabad: With so much coming into the public domain about donations to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) headed by Ms. Sonia Gandhi, the Congress Party has launched a counter attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, but its attempts to turn this into a slugfest between the two main political parties is unlikely to bury some basic, worrying questions that have cropped up in the public mind.
To begin with, the Congress Party must explain why the RGF, which, like the party, is an enterprise of the Nehru-Gandhi family, took a donation from China - a nation that has spurned India’s hand of friendship and repeatedly challenged India’s territorial integrity for over seven decades.
Even more shocking is the reluctance of the Congress Party to disclose the contents of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) it entered into with the Communist Party of China (CCP) in 2008. The document was signed on behalf of the party by Mr. Rahul Gandhi, its General Secretary and by an official of the CCP in the presence of his mother and party president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi and the then Chinese Vice-President, Xi Jinping. Despite mounting public demand, the Nehru-Gandhis are chary of releasing this MoU. What are they afraid of?
Posting a picture of the MOU signing ceremony, the noted lawyer, Mr.Mahesh Jethmalani tweeted recently and said it was imperative for the party to disclose the details “and get the guessing and insinuations over with”. More ominously (for the Congress Party), the lawyer noted that "China was and is in Indian law, an enemy country. The CCP is an enemy association. The CCP supports the occupation of Indian territory and lays claim to other territory. Any agreement/MoU with the CCP validates the CCP's stand and is an unlawful activity punishable under the UAPA."
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He has also suggested a CBI probe into possible offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Acts of 1976 and 2010.
This question becomes all the more relevant at a time when 20 Indian soldiers have laid down their lives while countering yet another attempted incursion by the Chinese in Ladakh recently. There is also a domestic angle to the scandal involving funds flowing into this family’s trust which is even more appalling. This relates to the diversion of funds from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), which is primarily meant to lend succour to people in times of natural calamities etc, to the RGF when the party headed the coalition that ran the union government from 2004 to 2014.
Apart from the Nehru-Gandhis, Dr.Manmohan Singh, who was the Prime Minister at that time must explain how he allowed such gross misuse of a public fund directly under his charge. He must also explain why some many union ministries and government departments and public sector undertakings gave grants to the RGF when he was prime minister.
The news about the donation from the government of China to the Congress Party has stirred a hornet’s nest as it has raised questions about the sanctity of the transaction and its possible impact on India’s sovereignty and unity and integrity. The Congress Party, which was at the vanguard of the freedom movement, has for long enjoyed the trust and love of the people for the enormous sacrifices made by its leaders to secure the country’s freedom. The sacrifices of Mahatma Gandhi, who was the party’s guiding light, Jawaharlal Nehru, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Dr.B.R.Ambedkar and thousands of across the land were remembered with utmost reverence by the people in the initial decades after independence.
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However, this reverence began to fade away when, after the advent of Indira Gandhi, the party became a clone of a private limited company which was tightly held by the Nehru-Gandhi family and which allowed the family’s insecurities and pettiness to permeate its activities. Consequently, they made India a de facto monarchy and with the help of courtiers in the media and academia worked overtime to obliterate the contribution of great leaders outside this family.
This reached such vulgar proportions that every major government scheme, public building, national institutions, universities, scholarships and sports events were named after members of this family. This exercise went to such shameful lengths that even Pygmalion Point, the southern-most point of India was re-named Indira Point and a peak in the Himalayas was named Rajiv Peak. Union Ministers and state chief ministers vied with each other to please the family and went to such ridiculous lengths as to name a calf-rearing scheme in Haryana after India Gandhi and a breakfast scheme in Pondicherry and a Jhopadpatti (slum) Football Tournament in Maharastra after Rajiv Gandhi.
All this shows the small mindedness of the family, but since this exercise went unchecked for decades, the family has become so brazen as to take donations from an enemy country for the family-run trust.
The sense of entitlement of the family is such that Sonia Gandhi and not prime minister Manmohan Singh attended the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese played host to her, her son Rahul Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka and son-in-law Robert Vadra. Tweeting about this, Ms. Shobha Karandjale, MP has said "This wasn't just a mockery of the office of the Prime Minister, but a subversion of India's democratic system & ethos."
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Therefore, the unwillingness of the Congress Party to criticise China even after 20 Indian soldiers sacrificed their lives defending the country at Galwan must be seen in the light of this donation, the MoU and the red carpet laid out by the Chinese to the Nehru-Gandhis. Then, the jigsaw puzzle will fall in place.
There is seething anger in the country regarding the hegemonistic attitude of China and its perfidy after signing agreements vis-à-vis patrolling and other arrangements along the LAC for maintenance of peace. The strong public sentiment will compel the Narendra Modi Government to take firm measures to defend the country’s territorial integrity, which the Prime Minister has firmly declared is non-negotiable. Unfortunately, the Congress Party is not lending him support. Why is the Congress Party at odds with this national sentiment? Every Indian must ask this question and search for answers.