Why Congress remains silent on ED action against Robert Vadra as BJP dials up heat

As news of the ED’s chargesheet filed on April 9 against Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case became public, the Congress leadership rose to strongly defend them, rejecting the central agency’s move as “politics of vendetta”.

Congress insiders say the move not to defend Vadra and to distance the party from him was a “calculated decision” as he doesn’t hold a post in the party and has never been associated with it in any formal capacity. The ED’s summons to Vadra on April 15 and the Congress’s decision to remain silent over it came just days after Vadra expressed his willingness to join politics.

The case against Vadra is related to a land deal between a firm Skylight Hospitality, where Vadra was a director earlier, and real estate giant DLF.

It came to light after Haryana cadre IAS officer Ashok Khemka cancelled its mutation in October 2012. There are allegations of favourable treatment for Vadra by the then Congress government in Haryana under Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

While Vadra has maintained that “he believes in the truth, and truth will prevail” and has called the fresh summons “political vendetta”, the Congress has remained silent. Though Priyanka Gandhi accompanied Vadra to the ED office for his questioning on the third day, she has also not said anything on the case publicly.

On Tuesday, the first day of his questioning by the ED, Vadra said that “when he speaks in favour of the people, for the minorities and for the failure of government, he is stopped”. “This is political vendetta,” he said, claiming “People love me and want me to join politics… When I express my willingness to join politics, they bring up old issues to bring me down and divert from the real issues.”

Earlier, Vadra said: “People always ask about me going to Parliament. Let us see. I will be working hard, when the Congress would require, there would be the blessing of my family, I would also be in the Parliament.”

While Vadra may have been left to defend himself, the entire Congress leadership has been actively defending the Gandhis in the National Herald case. Sources said that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has even called a meeting with the party’s general secretaries and in-charges to discuss the party’s campaign against the government’s “targeting of the Gandhis in the National Herald case”.

The Congress had, in the run up to last year’s Haryana Assembly elections, found itself in a similar situation when the BJP had raked up the same land deal. During the election campaign, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken a swipe at Vadra and the Congress, saying that under the previous Hooda-led Congress governments from 2004 to 2014, the state had been handed over to “damaad (son-in-law) and dalaals (middlemen)”.

On various occasions that Vadra has found himself in the middle of corruption allegations, the Congress has mostly stayed away and let him fend for himself, pointing out that he is not associated with the party in any capacity.

However, despite the BJP’s sustained attacks on Vadra for several years, the party-led government in Haryana had in April 2023 told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that “no violation of rules or regulations have been detected in the transfer of land by Skylight Hospitality to DLF Universal in Gurugram”. In July 2023, then Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar virtually absolved Vadra of any illegality saying that “the matter does not invite a jail term”.

Congress leaders say the BJP simply wants to keep the “pot boiling”. “They know that getting Vadra at the ED office for three days will mean it will be in the news and public perception is that Vadra is associated with the Congress. It is difficult to change that because of his relationship with the Gandhi family. But that doesn’t mean that the Congress has to react every time an agency calls Vadra for questioning,” says a senior Haryana Congress leader.

“Let the law take its own course. Whatever the allegations, there is not an iota of truth in the allegations against Vadra. The BJP knows this, but simply wants to distract from the real issues. Both the National Herald case and the allegations against Vadra are part of the same strategy – to distract and deviate.”

Another leader, considered close to Rahul Gandhi, told The Indian Express that defending Vadra or bringing him into the party would be a “self-goal”. “While Rahul Gandhi is talking about ideals and caste representation, bringing Vadra into the party would mean more attacks of parivaarvad (dynastic politics) from the BJP. Hence, our party has decided to not defend Vadra over the latest round of ED questioning in the old case,” said the leader.