National Herald Case: Allegations against Sonia, Rahul are 'deliberately orchestrated', alleges Congress

Amid the raging row over National Herald case, Congress on Sunday asserted that the allegations and "insinuations" against party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are "deliberately orchestrated", "patently false" and "defamatory" as they have "not received a rupee".

Senior party leaders and legal luminaries P Chidambaram and Ashwani Kumar insisted that all transactions in question are legal and expressed confidence that both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will be "fully vindicated" through the judicial process. "(There is) nothing wrong in this transaction. In fact, by putting a non-profit company as the dominant shareholder, we have ensured that not one rupee from the assets can go to any private beneficiary," said Chidambaram said defending the move to transfer the shares of Associate Journalst Limited (AJL) to Young India, a company of which Sonia and Rahul are major shareholders.

Sonia and Rahul have nothing to worry because "they have not received a rupee benefit", the former Finance Minister said, while raising questions over Modi government's role saying it had acted hastily on a "private complaint" to reopen a shut case. He claimed that the assets of AJL are now "doubly secure" as a non-profit company is the dominant shareholder.

Kumar, in a statement here, said there are "incontrovertible facts" which make it obvious that "allegations and insinuations against the Congress leadership and others are deliberately orchestrated, are patently false and defamatory. All transactions in question are entirely legal." In this context, he listed some details of the case as well as Delhi High Court's judgement of December 7 which, according to him, "held that no question of criminality, even upon a prima facie basis arises at this stage".

He reproduced Para 36 of the judgement as saying: ' It needs no reiteration that this is not the stage to even prima facie opine that the ingredients of any of the alleged offences exist to justify putting petitioners on trial or not.
Any observation made in this regard by the trial court or this court shall have no bearing when the case of the petitioners is considered at the charge state.' Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have been summoned by a Delhi court in connection with the case on December 19 after the High Court refused to agree to their plea for personal exemption. This issue led to stalling of Parliament for most of the last week with the Congress creating uproar, alleging "political vendetta". 

"Congress respects the integrity of the judicial process and is confident that its leaders will be fully vindicated through the judicial process," Kumar said. Chidambaram told CNN-IBN that Young India is a non-profit company, which means not one rupee from AJL can be given to any one or can be received by the non profit company. "Infact the AJL's assets have been doubly secured today," he said, adding there was "no illegality" as there was a need to secure the properties of AJL.

When it was pointed out to him that in the Young India company majority of the shares are held by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, he said "it is again reflection of Congress party structure.... Congress party was lender, now it is a Congress party organisation is a lender. It is the same. The lender is a non-profit company. Much better." Ashwani Kumar said the transaction in question dates back to November 2010 and was declared by the management of AJL and YI itself in the requisite filings before the competent authorities.

"The fact of full public disclosure of the transaction itself demolishes any suggestion of criminality against Directors and shareholders of AGL and YI," he insisted. The Congress leader said "in the current holding structure YI - a non profit Section 25 company is a major shareholder of AJL which further enhances the safeguards with regard to the use etc. of the properties of AJL. The Directors and shareholders of a non-profit Section 25 company are legally prohibited from deriving any financial benefit in any form whatsoever for themselves. Not a single paisa has been received by YI, its Directors or its shareholders." He said the properties that belong to AJL continue to remain with AJL.

"YI does not own a single real estate asset or immovable property. The majority of AJL properties are in the nature of government leases and according to the terms of the lease(s) the sale of the land under lease is prohibited. For this reason properties of AJL could not be liquidated or sold to clear its outstanding loans," Kumar added. Insisting that "There is no restriction in law on political parties against advancing loans," he said, "This was confirmed even by the Election Commission" in its order of November 2012 on a petition for de-recognition of the Congress moved by Subramanium Swamy.

"It is a fundamental legal principle that acts lawfully done, as in the present case, cannot give rise to any criminality whatsoever," the former Law Minister said. He said AJL has been closely associated with the Congress party since 1937 and has espoused its ideology throughout. "It was only natural for the Congress to financially support AJL over the last several decades. The loans advanced by the party to AJL were used to pay unpaid salaries, VRS, taxes, dues to civic agencies and to discharge statutory and other liabilities of AJL." 

About the uproar created by Congress over the National Herald issue, Chidambaram said, "We are not criticising the judge but we are entitled to criticise the judgement and that's what we are doing." He said there is a summon and the Gandhis will appear "but that doesn't mean they have lost their right to question the judgement." The Congress leader criticised the Delhi High court judgement which rejected the plea of Rahul, Sonia and others against summons.

"I am criticising the judgement on its own merits. The judgement says, somethings smack of criminality but (says).... its no part of the exercise to even allude to which section is attracted. Now that's incomprehensible judgement according to me," he added. Chidambaram emphasised that the logjam in Parliament has nothing to do with the National Herald case but said the conduct of the government in the matter raised suspicions as "it allowed a closed enquiry to be re-opened at the instance of a private complainant" after sacking the Enforcement Director.

"The private complainant's letter is acted, haste poste haste, the ED is sacked and the enquiry is opened," he said, adding "Doesn't that raise suspicions in the minds of the people?"
With regard to GST bill, he said Congress considers it a progressive measure provided its "legitimate concerns" are met by the government. He said the government is yet to respond to the concerns raised by Congress at the Prime Minister's tea meeting.

"The last I heard about the GST is that the Prime Minister called a meeting. We have given our concerns in very precise terms," he said. The government, he said, had promised to come back with revised formulations which it has not done yet and the Congress is waiting for the response.

"GST was our idea.. Gujarat and MP opposed it," the former Finance Minister said, adding he is "happy that those who had held this Bill are now supporting it." Chidambaram was asked about charges of vendetta levelled by Congress leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad in Parliament. To this, he said if there has to be criticism of the government, then Parliament is the place