• Source:JND
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Gandhi Family And Scams: The Gandhi family members - Rajya Sabha MP Sonia Gandhi, her son and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, and son-in-law Robert Vadra - are facing the heat of corruption charges. The ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is turning up the scandal heat on the Congress leadership ahead of assembly elections in key states - Bihar and West Bengal. The undesirable relationship between the Gandhi family and scam allegations got renewed after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) started questioning Varda in the Haryana land deal and filed charge sheet in another case - the National Herald case.

Congress And Scam Allegation Politics

Right from India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1947–1964) to former PM Rajiv Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi, all big leaders from the Congress family faced corruption allegations which cost them electoral loss. Even though none of the major allegations was proven in court, the rival of Congress, especially, the BJP got success in building a narrative impact of which was seen in several elections. Rajiv Gandhi lost in the Lok Sabha election in 1989 despite the remarkable beginning of his political career as his rival Janata Dal leader VP Singh as Singh used the 'Bofors scam' as the biggest ammunition against Rajiv Gandhi. Likewise, the saffron party built a mountain of allegations against the Sonia Gandhi-guided UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government before 2014 which immensely benefited the NDA (National Democratic Alliance). Gandhi's family's party is out of power since 2014 (11 years), but no allegation has reached a conclusion. Moreover, these allegations appear as a political narrative against the Gandhi family.

Here, we listed the major scam allegations against the Gandhi family: 

Jeep Scandal (1948): Then Opposition alleged irregularity in the procurement of jeeps for the Indian Army from a British company. They alleged that VK Krishna Menon, then the Indian High Commissioner to the UK was involved in the scam. Nehru defended Menon which drew criticism.

LIC-Mundhra Scandal (1957–1958): Feroze Gandhi, Nehru's son-in-law, exposed the alleged financial scandal in Parliament, which impacted his relationship with the prime inister and forced Nehru to aske resignation of his finance minister.

Bofors Scandal (1986): The case created a huge buzz in the political circle. Rajiv Gandhi (Prime Minister 1984–1989) fell into serious trouble due to the allegation in the major arms deal. Subsequently, Rajiv Gandhi was defeated in the General Elections 1989 as the public perception went against the Congress government.

National Herald Case (2012–2025): Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi were accused of financial irregularities involving the properties of the National Herald newspaper. The ED filed a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) in Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court against Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and others in the alleged National Herald case.

Haryana Land Deal (2008-2025): Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law and businessman Robert Vadra was questioned by ED on day 2 on Thursday. The case is linked to a land purchase in February 2008 for Rs 7.5 crore by Vadra's Skylight Hospitality in Shikohpur in Haryana's Gurugram district. The mutation process, which usually takes months, was done the next day, which raised eyebrows. Months later, he received a permit to develop a housing society on the land, and the value of the plot increased. He sold it to DLF in June at Rs 58 crore. Suspecting the proceeds to be part of a money laundering scheme, the ED has been probing the trail behind the windfall gains.

ALSO READ: Robert Vadra & Politics: Explaining Haryana Land Deal Case And His Tryst With Polity