You don’t have to like Subramaniam Swamy or even express faith in his credibility vis-a-vis his open hostility to the Gandhi family. We know he loathes them heartily. But none of this is valid in robbing him of his right as a citizen (if, legally, he has all his mental faculties about him) from petitioning the courts with a case of alleged corruption. If the courts have decided, in their wisdom, that there is prima facie evidence to register the complaint then let the courts proceed with it. The toxic texture of Swamy’s motive is incidental.
Not many of us are authorities on the intricacies of the National Herald scandal and if, indeed, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have their paws in the cookie jar we are not eyewitnesses. By that same token, no idea how many millions have been siphoned but none of these factors have anything to do with disrupting Parliament and its functioning. Let the legal system and the Enforcement Directorate do their job.
Ballooning a summons into an indictment against the government and screaming indignation is unseemly. As is this conclusion that there is this gigantic political conspiracy afoot to pick on the mother and son and, through them, the Congress party, and through them (unbelievably) the Indian people.
And what has all this got to do with the winter session of Parliament? To establish any nexus between the litigation and the disruptive conduct in Parliament is to first accept that BJP as the power at the center manipulated the legal system to deliberately hound, harass and bully Sonia and Rahul. And that the legal system then allowed itself to be so intimidated. This is a dangerous premise and I don’t think we are ready to buy into that.
If we take one step in that direction we are damning our judicial system beyond repair. So, hold that thought for now. Freeze it.
Back again to Parliament. You are two of 543 people elected by the people to represent them in the house and move forward on acts of progress on their behalf.
Your private travails, regardless of their validity or lack of it, do not figure in your duty to the people who elected you.
I truly don’t know if you scammed National Herald funds and skimmed Rs 50 million or 50 billion. Let the judge decide if you made an illegal deal on the land or misused your dynastic power.
If Swamy’s hatred is exposed, fine.
If the scam dies out and scams in India usually do, so be it.
If you come back to power you can get even, we have all been there, done that, seen that, big deal.
But for now...
You get back to work. Let Parliament work. You are draining away precious time, derailing the democratic processes, holding the nation to ransom and upstaging the legal system. Already we have lost the whole of the last session. Now it is happening again. This is not democracy at work nor is it free expression. This is sabotage.
Technically, you are already in contempt of court.
Come Dec. 19, do what you expect 1.2 billion Indians to do. Fetch up in Court with grace and dignity and file your appeal or your defense and if you come out smelling like lilies, good for you. If you don’t, tough bananas.
