Sonia Gandhi was not offered any food, not even tea, while being interrogated in the National Herald case. The Enforcement Directorate was told that it was against the interim Congress president’s security protocol, and the agency did not want to take any chances.
So there sat Sonia, 75 and recovering from Covid-19, in a small ventilated room with a typist and the interrogating officer. The ED had summoned her in the money laundering case a while back, but Sonia first reached the agency’s office on July 21. The interrogation continued on July 26 and 27.
The agency followed all the protocols—Covid tests were done, a government doctor and an ambulance were kept on standby, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was allowed to wait on her mother, with a medicine kit, in another room. Priyanka was also allowed to meet Sonia in between and took her home for lunch. This was in contrast to what the ED had done during Rahul Gandhi’s questioning in the same case in June. It had stopped Priyanka at the gate then.
On day one, Sonia answered 28 questions; on July 26, she answered 50, and was determined to do so with clarity and conviction.
The big question haunting the Congress top brass at its Udaipur Chintan Shivir in May seemed to have followed the Gandhis to Delhi. The question being, how did the party lose its connection with the common man and what has it done to revive it? Ironically, the ED seemed to have hit upon the same question, albeit in a different way.
The alleged money laundering took place during the “revival” of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of the English newspaper National Herald, which Jawaharlal Nehru had launched to be the voice of the “common man”.
この記事は THE WEEK India の August 07, 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は THE WEEK India の August 07, 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
What Will It Take To Clean Up Delhi Air?
IT IS ASKED, year after year, why Delhi’s air remains unbreathable despite several interventions to reduce pollution.
Trump and the crisis of liberalism
Although Donald Trump's election to a non-consecutive second term to the US presidency is not unprecedented—Grover Cleveland had done it in 1893—it is nevertheless a watershed moment.
Men eye the woman's purse
A couple of months ago, I chanced upon a young 20-something man at my gym walking out with a women’s sling bag.
When trees hold hands
A filmmaker explores the human-nature connect through the living root bridges
Ms Gee & Gen Z
The vibrant Anuja Chauhan and her daughter Nayantara on the generational gap in romance writing
Vikram Seth-a suitable man
Our golden boy of literature was the star attraction at the recent Shillong Literary Festival in mysterious Meghalaya.
Superman bites the dust
When my granddaughter Kim was about three, I often took her to play in a nearby park.
OLD MAN AND THE SEA
Meet G. Govinda Menon, the 102-year-old engineer who had a key role in surveying the Vizhinjam coast in the 1940s, assessing its potential for an international port
Managing volatility: smarter equity choices in uncertain markets
THE INDIAN STOCK MARKET has delivered a strong 11 per cent CAGR over the past decade, with positive returns for eight straight years.
Investing in actively managed low-volatility portfolios keeps risks at bay
AFTER A ROARING bull market over the past year, equity markets in the recent months have gone into a correction mode as FIIs go on a selling spree. Volatility has risen and investment returns are hurt.
