Honesty begins at home, Mr Gandhi

It’s 2014 and perhaps a good time for the Congress vice-president to begin afresh. Rahul Gandhi, who recently slammed the Maharashtra government stance on Aadarsh Housing Society probe report, has now a litmus test ahead, that of admitting and owning up to the rampant corruption perpetrated by members of his own family, particularly, the Gandhi son-in-law Robert Vadra. Gandhi, who leaves no stone unturned to take credit for the passage of the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill in Parliament, keeps a practiced silence on the misadventures of Vadra, whose land deals with the realty giant DLF in Haryana have drawn flak from the opposition for a while now. Despite the Rajasthan government under BJP’s Vasundhara Raje ordering a probe into the elaborate land deals of Vadra in her state, undertaken during the previous Ashok Gehlot regime, it would not really reap dividends until the Gandhi scion shows the gumption to clean up his own backyard. Vadra faces action for violation of land ceiling Act in Rajasthan, buying over 10,000 acres of wasteland near powergrid substations in Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Barmer, as small chunks from farmers for his companies, for extremely paltry amounts. Vadra had purchased land much before the substations were constructed or the solar power policy was announced, aided by the Gehlot government, which changed its policies to suit the Gandhi son-in-law.

Moreover, the public is already livid over the mistreatment meted out to Ashok Khemka, the whistleblower IAS officer in Vadra case, by the Haryana government under the Congress’ Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Khemka, who has been transferred a record 44 times because of his honest and upright nature and intrepid consistency, is now likely to join the AAP, which might be another nail in the coffin that is the Gandhis-led Congress party. Additionally, the grand old party, which is all set to declare Rahul as their PM candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls must need to showcase a clean slate and that can only come if the Gandhi scion shows the grit to sacrifice a member of his own clan. Since that is a Herculean task, the Congress party is likely to continue with its outdated and corrupt policies in the new year, only to wake up too late in the day.