Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s dubious land deals occupied centre stage in Parliament on Tuesday with the BJP demanding a high-level probe into the scandal.
Pushed back on the defensive, the Congress contended that Vadra’s was an ‘individual case’ and should not be debated in Parliament.
The controversy has come as a big embarrassment for the Congress as Sonia Gandhi had tried to take a public position on securing justice for suspended IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal. Ironically, for the Congress, in the centre of the Vadra scandal is another IAS officer, Ashok Khemka, who was shunted by the Haryana Government for taking on the powerful “damaad” of the party.
While former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha demanded a Supreme Court-appointed SIT probe in the land deals, leader of Opposition in lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said that the Government should allow it to be raised in Parliament. Amid pandemonium on several matters raised in the lok Sabha, Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the House till noon and then again at 12.15 pm.
Sinha then launched a verbal attack against Vadra outside Parliament. Without naming the “highly-connected person,” Sinha, pointed that Vadra has made a mockery of every law of the land. In the middle of adjournments, the former Finance Minister in the NDA regime demanded a multi-disciplinary team monitored by the Supreme Court to probe the Vadra land deals because Vadra has allegedly violated many central laws including Banking law, Income-Tax law and Company law.
Raising the issue in lok Sabha in the morning, Sinha said: “Though there are several business schools which teach models of making money, there is one highly-connected person who did not go to any such school but has given a model where no investment is made but windfall gains of thousands of crores are made.”
Sinha also ridiculed the party by advising them to open a ‘Vadra school of management’ where Finance Minister P Chidambaram should get himself admitted and learn how to earn profits worth hundreds of crores without making any investments and also apply the model to resurrect the Indian economy.
“Without any investment you can make money, that’s a unique model. All his deals in the Congress-ruled States of Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan should be probed so that truth would come out and guilty would be punished,” Sinha said talking to media persons outside the Parliament.
The reference towards Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law drew protests from Congress members. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath was on his feet and nearly entered the Well. Rajiv Shukla also protested vehemently.
later, the Opposition MPs leveled charges against UPA that it was not allowing to discuss the Vadra land deal case with the support of its allies. “The Congress disrupted us, Parliamentary Affairs Minister was himself in the Well of the House,” Sinha said.
BJP raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha also demanding a probe into the matter leading to the repeated adjournments of the House.As soon as the House assembled at 11 am, agitated BJP members were on their feet demanding that a debate be held on the issue. They were shouting slogans “Daamad hai to kya hua-chor to chor hai (What if he is somebody’s son in law-a thief is a thief).”
In retaliation, Congress members also stood up and said Congress ka haath aam admi ke saath, Congress ka haath Sonia ke saath (The Congress is with the common man and also with Sonia).”
Since nothing could be heard, Chairman Hamid Ansari tried to plead with members to allow the House to function but the Opposition and Treasury benches refused to yield attracting his ire. He lamented that all the rules were being violated and the members were “trying to turn the House into a federation of anarchists” and adjourned the House.
When the House assembled at noon, BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that a scam has taken place and it is rocking the nation and so the matter should be allowed to be discussed during Zero Hour. However, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien refused to allow it despite repeated pleas by Ravi Shankar Prasad to allow it to be raised for a brief period. This lead to sloganeering by the BJP members and retaliation by Treasury benches and subsequently the House was adjourned.
BJP leader Sushma Swaraj raised the issue at the all party meeting seeking to know why the Government was not allowing the matter to be raised in Parliament and the left parties also supported the demand on the ground that all kinds of scams irrespective of who is involved must be probed.
However BSP, Samajwadi Party and JD (U) extended support to the Congress and some tacit understanding was reached among various parties about not disrupting Parliament on the issue so the House functioned well after lunch.
“I would like to say if Sonia Gandhi is held responsible for it, our party does not agree with it. If someone does something wrong, his or her relations should not be punished. On the allegations against Robert Vadra, how can Sonia Gandhi be held responsible,” BSP chief Mayawati told reporters here.
SP leader Naresh Aggarwal said the BJP was “politicising” the issue which was a State matter and should be handled at that level only.CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said all cases of corruption, whether any individual or any corporate is involved, must be probed and the guilty punished. These issues must also be discussed in the House.
However, the Congress staunchly refused to take up the issue for discussion with party spokesman Sandeep Dikshit saying that since the matter pertained to the Haryana Government, it cannot be discussed in Parliament.
“It does not fall in Parliament’s purview and we don’t discuss personal issues in the House,” he said.One party leader said that the BJP had in the past not allowed debate on issues involving MP CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s case and the Adani group of Gujarat on the plea that they pertained to State issues, so how could it raise the matter pertaining to Vadra which involved the Haryana Government.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari asked BJP to refrain from “trying every trick” to stall the proceedings of Parliament. He also attacked the Haryana IAS officer of administrative overreach as “no attempt was made” by him to give “other people a right to even articulate” their point of view.