Only a couple of days back it came out public, alleging that under a “criminal conspiracy”, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and the private company ‘Young Indian’ were involved in a money-laundering scheme related to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued at over ₹2,000 crore belonging to the AJL.

During the last 13 years, since the case was filed in 2012 by BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy, the ED never mentioned any conspiracy. This is for the first time that the ED is using this phrase, a common strategy of the investigating agencies used to malign the accused persons. This has ominous implications. This move of the ED appears to be simply vindictive and aimed to malign Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. In this case, the timing of initiating the case is extremely significant.

In recent months, while Rahul has been aggressively batting against Modi inside and outside the Parliament, he has also been motivating the Congress cadres and rejuvenating the party at the grassroot level to take BJP and RSS head on. It is also a fact during these months, the Congress, which was written off only a year back by Modi himself as a political non-entity, has emerged as a strong challenger to the political hegemony of the saffron ecosystem and its politics of hate and communal divisiveness. The BJP might claim to have won the Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections fair and square, but the fact remains that several videos and other evidence have started surfacing in recent months that underline that had the Election Commission not manipulated the EVMs and inflated the number of votes polled, the BJP would have officially lost these two states.

The immediate provocation for Modi to order revenge action against Rahul and Sonia has been holding of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) meet in Gujarat after 64 years. Modi had succeeded in creating the impression that he had finished off the Congress in Gujarat after winning the assembly elections successively for two terms. However, the massive response the AICC received has shaken the confidence of Modi. It has evoked strong response and rejuvenated the Congress workers at grassroot. Soon after the meet, some BJP leaders also switched to Congress.

With Rahul, who till a year back was vilified as ‘Pappu’, emerging as the ‘peoples’ face of protest’, Modi has become nervous of his future political career. His credibility has been facing the worst kind of challenge and decline, when RSS too has been contemplating how to ease him out of the office of prime minister. However, in initiating the vindictive ED action against the Gandhis, once again, Modi has proved without doubt that he is politically naïve and still lacks long-term vision. Probably, Rahul would not have turned so fiery, if Modi had not ventured to malign him and his whole family. Modi cannot deny that his serial misdemeanors have helped catapult Rahul as the most towering political leader of the opposition in contemporary India.

Modi is virtually committing harakiri by instigating the ED to implicate the Gandhis in false and fabricated cases. He should realise that ED action would not malign Gandhis, while no doubt they would be harassed. However, it would further erode the already shoddy image of the PM.

Modi’s indiscriminate and illegal actions have already earned him a bad name. His popularity index has declined substantially. Ever since he came to power, PM Modi has been using ED ruthlessly against his political opponents, a tactic that has often boomeranged on the BJP itself. Modi must introspect why the people did not respond to his electoral campaign demand to elect 400+ BJP MPs. Many allege that the BJP had in reality won only 198 seats, but it was via the serial machinations of the Election Commission that it could reach 240 seats.

Modi has absolutely smashed the credibility of government agencies. In the famous case of arrest of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in a money-laundering case, the court was quite ruthless in its observations and even accused ED action as “illegal” and a “witch-hunt”. The ED had gone to High Court against the lower court verdict, but did not get relief. The court was critical of ED; why the main accused was not arrested?

ED has filed at least 5,900 cases during Modi’s rule, but has mostly failed to get the conviction of the accused persons as the allegations did not stand legal scrutiny and in most of the cases, it failed to produce clinching evidence. In more than 1000 cases, even the charge-sheets have also not been filed. The ED has filed 193 cases against politicians, including members of Parliament and MLAs during Modi’s rule, but secured conviction in only two cases. The data was provided by Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

ED action comes just ahead of Supreme Court move to decide if its 2022 verdict upholding the ED’s powers to arrest and attach property under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) needs reconsideration. A two-judge bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N Kotiswar Singh said a three-judge bench was supposed to hear the matter and it was wrongly listed before it. The ED did not prefer to wait for the final order of the apex court.

The ED action against the Gandhis is also meant to terrorise regional parties, especially the allies of INDIA bloc. The serial somersaults of Nitish Kumar and the recalcitrant attitude of Mamata Banerjee have given rise to speculation that the INDIA bloc is finished. Moreover, AAP’s unexpected loss in Delhi election simply cemented the impression. But given the recent incidents, when the constituent parties joined ranks on many issues, the impression has once again been gaining ground that the INDIA bloc under Rahul would prove to be a tough nut for Modi to crack.

The ED served notices to property registrars in three cities in connection with properties of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) on April 11, in accordance with Section 8 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, and Rule 5(1) of the associated rules. “As part of the process to take possession of the tainted properties in the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) money laundering case, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in compliance with Section 8 of PMLA, 2002 and Rule 5(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering (Taking Possession of Attached or Frozen Properties Confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2013, on April 11 has served notices to Registrars of property in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow having jurisdiction of the area where AJL properties are located,” ED said in a release.

ED has been working overtime to present the National Herald case as money laundering case. But the fact is otherwise. Besides victimizing the Gandhis, Modi is also out to finish the name of Nehru from the Indian history and minds of Indians. This is yet another important reason for Modi targeting the National Herald. Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) was a brainchild of Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1937, Nehru started the firm with 5,000 other freedom fighters as its shareholders. The company did not belong to any person in particular. In 2010, the company had 1,057 shareholders. It incurred losses, and its holdings were transferred to Young India in 2011. Young India Ltd was set up in 2010, with Rahul Gandhi, then a general secretary of the Congress party, as a director. While Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia hold 76 per cent of the company's shares, the remaining 24% were held by Congress leaders, the late Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes. The company is said to have no commercial operations.

The Congress party has already on record to have claimed that YIL was created “with the aim of charity” and not for any profit. It also claimed that there was “no illegality” in the transaction, as it was “merely a commercial transaction” for transferring shares of the company. It also raised objections to the complaint filed by Swamy, labelling it as “politically motivated”. (IPA Service)