| by B. Raman
( October 9,
2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) 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.
(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)
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