'They want to keep the pot boiling all the time.'
'The BJP wants to set a political narrative that the Gandhis are doing wrong things.'
When the Enforcement Directorate filed a chargesheet against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, it evoked a sense of deja vu.
For the alleged corruption case has been going on since 2011, when Janata Party leader Dr Subramanian Swamy filed a complaint in the matter.
Since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014, the case has been meandering its way, suddenly finding life but at most times with little progress.
So the ED suddenly naming the Gandhis as accused in the case, which was followed quickly by the interrogation of Mrs Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, led to eyebrows being raised. Is a new witch-hunt on against the Gandhis? If so, why now?
"This case reeks of political calculations from the government side," Rasheed Kidwai, veteran Congress watcher and author of 24 Akbar Road and Sonia - A Biography, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.
The National Herald case against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi dates back to 2012. The Modi government didn't do anything concrete over it for 11 years but now seems to have woken up suddenly. Why?
This case was a private complaint by Dr Subramanian Swamy in 2012, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was in power. At that point of time the Congress party felt there was nothing in this complaint. It was frivolous and not substantive enough. They did their legal and administrative check too.
I am not going into the legal matter of the case as no property was sold.
The Modi government is in power since 2014 and it is 11 years now. Had they been active on this case the outcome would have been much faster.
In cases of such nature there are steps that include 1. Filing of complaint; 2. First Information Report; 3. Chargesheet; 4. Court trial and then 5. Court verdict. And here in this case, after 11 years of the Modi government, we have only reached the third stage which is a chargesheet.
Therefore, this case reeks of political calculations from the government side.
Because from the government's own track record, as far as political convictions by the ED is concerned, the rate of conviction is only 1 percent (external link).
Why are they targeting the Gandhis?
They want to keep the pot boiling all the time. The BJP wants to set a political narrative that the Gandhis are doing wrong things.
If you see, the BJP always has sets this kind of political narrative against the Congress all the time.
They will say Pandit Nehru messed up Jammu and Kashmir issue. He messed up the India-China war.
They will then set a narrative against Rajiv Gandhi by stating he was corrupt and quote the Bofors case.
So in the same way they are charging and setting up a narrative that the Gandhis are corrupt.
If you see they did charge the UPA in corruption cases like 2G scam, Augusta Westland, coal scam or Commonwealth Games scam which were never proved in court.
In that context the National Herald case is high on optics because it is notional and not a politically sensitive case. In this case the bureaucracy is not involved.
In the National Herald case it is only the Gandhis and Congress party office-bearers who are involved. Hing lagey na phitkiri rang lagey chokha (to gain a lot without much effort). It does not require much effort but the benefit is immense.
This is only the political aspect of the case and not legal, because as far as legal is concerned it will be proved in the court of law.
Rahul Gandhi was interrogated for 55 hours in 2022 by the ED and nothing happened after that. Why wait for three 3 years to make a fresh move?
In a money laundering case you never know whether you have been called by the ED as one of the witnesses or an accused.
When Rahul Gandhi was called for questioning by the ED, he was told to co-operate in the investigation and he did. He was not named as an accused then, but now after three years he is made an accused.
The Robert Vadra case is almost 20 years old and they are rolling it out now. Is there any connection between this case and the National Herald case?
His case was far more substantive in nature. This again is in the realm of allegations and was about a land deal. Nothing came out of this case too.
Why is the government suddenly targeting the Gandhis when no elections are due?
There are elections in Bihar this year and again in Kerala (May 2026) where the Congress wants to make a comeback. And there are talks in the realm of politics that the Congress wants to make a comeback in Gujarat. Whether they succeed or not, we do not know at this point of time.
On April 12, the Congress appointed 42 AICC and 183 Pradesh Congress Committee observers to oversee the process of appointment of Pradesh Committee presidents in 33 districts and eight major cities of Gujarat.
Do you feel Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are not taking this lightly, since Rahul wants to challenge them in their home state?
One must remember that the Congress fought a very intense battle against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2017 Gujarat elections. The next elections, in 2022, was a very tame affair. But one has to understand that there is one-party government in Gujarat for a very long time (the BJP has been ruling Gujarat for 30 years). This makes for a strong possibility of anti-incumbency setting in.
The AICC recently held its convention in Gujarat for only the second time since Independence, and within six days of that Rahul Gandhi again went to Gujarat. Are Modi-Shah bothered by this focus on Gujarat?
Our country is governed by the rule of law and we are a Constitutional democracy. Unless the allegations are proved against the Gandhis in court it makes sense, otherwise it has the potential to boomerang.
Does the BJP consider Rahul Gandhi as a formidable opponent?
I would say so. He has a sense of conviction against the BJP.
There have been several instances where Rahul Gandhi has been proved right. He spoke and warned about America's tariff war, relations with China and economic recession. All these things were proved right.
He also spoke about the plight of farmers much ahead of the time and therefore, whatever one may say about Rahul, PM Modi did not get a simple majority on his own. The BJP fell short and could not cross the 272 seat mark to form a government on its own.
The BJP lost Amethi and then Ayodhya too, therefore it proved at that point of time that Rahul Gandhi is one politician who can politically upset PM Modi or the BJP's long term calculations.
But after that the Congress lost badly in Haryana and Maharashtra and therefore one wonders why should Rahul Gandhi be taken seriously in politics?
There are a lot of things that are going to happen, like delimitation of seats which will make an impact in the future.
What one needs to understand is that nothing is permanent in Indian politics. Things keep changing and it changes very fast. What will happen next, no one knows.
Nobody thought that the Congress will get 100 Lok Sabha seats, and yet they got it.
In Karnataka, the Congress is a divided house over the caste census. Why they are insisting on going ahead with the caste census?
For so many years it did not happen and it tells you that there is a lot of compelling arguments for and against it.
The Congress' DNA has always been upper caste and there is always resistance for such a census within the Congress party too.
What solution do you foresee emerging?
The Congress party has made up its mind that it will go ahead with the caste census.
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