When it first went to print in 1938, the newspaper National Herald carried on its masthead the words – Freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might. Today, the Indian National Congress is living its own interpretation of those words, with the freedom at stake not that of our nation, but that of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The current and former Congress presidents have been accused of creating a shell company to gain assets that originally belonged to a firm founded by India’s first prime minister and Rahul’s great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru.
The firm’s most popular asset is the National Herald newspaper, but its most profitable asset is real estate worth Rs 2,000 crore in prime locations of New Delhi, Lucknow, Bhopal, Mumbai, Indore, Patna and Panchkula among other places.
The firm, Associated Journals Limited, was the brainchild of Nehru but was never intended to be owned by any individual, much less a political party or dynasty. A questionable loan from the Congress to a cash-strapped AJL in 2011 changed that. The loan, the creation of a new entity called Young Indian Limited to acquire the said loan, the part payment Young Indian made to Congress, and the transfer of shares allegedly landed the Gandhi family in possession of a real estate gold mine.
As the case drops a giant question mark on the credibility of a family which directly or indirectly wielded enormous political power for 70 years of Independent India, News18 takes a deep dive into the…
