Sonia-Rahul court summon: Mamata ko kyon gussa ati hae?

TOLERANT INDIA!!  Where are India-fleeing ‘khans’ , award-returning writers and liberals? Is the writ of law of the land cannot apply on Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul? What’s the new standard of Parliamentary democracy? A court summon resulting in paralysis of Parliament?

Why dedicated sickular India looking the other way? A joke seriously circulated is Sonia Gandhi's statue should be built up even in her life time in Parliament premises as she is trying to set new standard of Parliamentary democracy.

Meanwhile, however, the talk of the town is, ‘Why is Mamata Banerjee nervous’? Is Trinamool Congress solidarity with Sonia Gandhi in a legal case linked to Saradha chit fund scam and the related CBI probe? "I feel bad ..... sad that Sonia Gandhi was asked to appear in court. Persons who have been in politics for such a long time, it is not good that they appear in court. I feel bad about it," Banerjee told reporters here shortly emerging out of her meeting with Modi on December 8, 2015. But Didi’s body language spoke differently. 

Is Mamata losing the plot? Why she looked tensed?

Trinamool sources, however, later denied that the solidarity expressed by Mamata herself and also by her party in Parliament to Congress party on 'The National Herald case' in any case was linked to the Saradha chit fund scam.

"It will be absolutely erroneous to link our stand with Congress party with Saradha chit fund scam," a key party MP later said.

That her meeting with the Prime Minister on acute fund crunch in the state did not generate much optimism could be understood when she said, "Prime Minister merely said dekhenge (I will see)" to the demands for moratorium.

When asked if she was "happy" about her meeting with the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister merely said, "I am always happy".

She, however, stuck to her stand on the demand for central assistance to bail out the state from financial crunch and said, "this mess is not my creation, it's not my fault".

Sonia with kids and Mom-in-Law

However, displaying political nerves as TMC and BJP are likely to be in fierce contests in the ensuing assembly elections, she said, "....but I expect all kinds of challenges, if I could run the state with a monthly debt of Rs 30,000 crore....I can manage even no financial assistance from the centre".

But she hastened to add, "I am hopeful about the meeting with Prime Minister and hope he will deliver justice".

Now coming to The National Herald per se. My first interaction with the newspaper – founded by Pt Jawaharlal Nehru – was in Nagaland. The paper had a representative in the northeastern state in late eighties and early nineties – by the name XXX Pandey (first name kept on withhold deliberately).

The great tribute to Pandeyji’s journalism was paid by Nagaland secretariat staffers when some of them had called him ‘Kakaji’ – likening him to the popular TV character of the time for a serial on Doordarshan. ‘Kakaji’ character was played splendidly by ace actor Om Puri.

Another senior journalist Baikuntha Nath Goswami had paid another round of glorious tributes when he told some of us in All India Radio, news room, “even if you murder Pandey, he cannot write in English – I have been murdered”.

Trinamool MPs - Anti-Modi mood

Now that talks about The National Herald as a newspaper – Congress seemed so desperate to promote – and invested some money as ‘loan’ to create a mess for their first family --- also their saviour! 

During our time in Nagaland when Pandeyji was posted there; many Congress ministers used to get shock when for interviews/and stories published in The National Herald, supposedly a Congress owned paper – they used to get ‘official bills’ to foot. 

Later on when I moved to New Delhi, heard lot many stories about The National Herald. One classic commentary from number senior PTI reporters used to be “The National Herald is truly a Congress paper, which not even the Congressmen read”.

“While the courts will determine whether Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are guilty in the National Herald case, this newspaper has always been a liability for the party,” posted A J Philip, a senior journalist in Facebook  

Let me not go further on this and come back to the essential issues of the case. This episode has truly pushed Congress and Rahul Gandhi on the defensive. There are chance very few parties will be left to support it in a legal case and that too on the issue of corruption. 

Congress members raised slogans ‘Zulm ka raj band karo (Stop the rule of highhandedness)’in Parliament. The allegation for a change fits Congress party itself as Rahul Gandhi himself had spoken about moral values in politics when court passed orders against Lalu Prasad and other. But today the stand point is, “we are from Indira Gandhi’s dynasty…we cannot be questioned”.  

(ends)