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”.
Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin August 07, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin August 07, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI