[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ubramanian Swamy, the then Janata Party president and now BJP’s active member, knocked the court’s door raising questions over acquisition of a company that published the now-defunct National Herald newspaper to which Congress gave a loan of over Rs. 90 crores. Swamy alleged that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had floated a company called ‘Young Indian’, which acquired Associated Journals, founded by late Jawaharlal Nehru, which published the National Herald and Quami Awaz. Swamy claimed it was illegal for Congress, a political party, to give loans for commercial purposes. Young Indian wrote off the loans due to Congress for a mere Rs. 50 lakhs and by a board resolution, the Associate Journals is sold by transfer of shares to Young Indian, which is not a newspaper or journal producing company. Swamy also sought summoning documents from “the Congress party reflecting the loans given to AJL and documents of the party in the year in which the loan was written off.”
The case went on for years and now Delhi court issued notices to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others on a fresh application by Swamy seeking summoning of certain documents in the National Herald case of cheating and misappropriation. In the application filed before Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen, Swamy has sought summoning of documents relating to a loan given to AJL by the Congress, saying that the papers were necessary for the purpose of the trial of the case. The documents sought to be summoned from the AJL, among others, are related to authorisation by its members to borrow money in excess of its paid-up capital and its free reserve, relevant extracts from its books of account of the loan period and the documents by which the loan was later converted into shares in the books of the company.
Further, he sought summoning of the documents filed by the AJL with Registrar of Companies, papers from the Income Tax Department relating to I-T returns filed by the company and some papers from the Department of Telecommunications. Swamy had informed the court, which had earlier this year allowed his plea to summon certain documents related to the case, that he would file a fresh application, following the setting aside of the orders of the Metropolitan Magistrate by the Delhi High Court. Anyway, Gandhis are boldly facing the court and its proceedings.
Motilal Nehru and Jawaharlal Nehru gave their life, profession and properties for the benefit of this country and their ‘so called’ descendants are only interested in self-aggrand-izement. Further disruption in Parliament seems likely as the senior Congress leadership decided to stick to its aggressive stance against the ruling BJP for the upcoming week. Sonia Gandhi felt that the party wasn’t getting a fair space in media to explain its viewpoint on the National Herald controversy.
Associated Journals Private Limited (AJL), a public limited company with immovable assets, formally closed printing and publication of newspapers like The National Herald, etc, in April 2008. At the time, it owed the Congress an accumulated debt of Rs. 90 crore the party had loaned it on interest free basis from time to time. This debt is considered as an asset to the Congress. The Congress declares that AJL has negative worth. It assigned the Rs. 90 crore debts owed to it by AJL to a charitable private company called Young Indian Private Company, which has a share capital of just Rs. 5 lakh. Accused Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi own 38 per cent shares each of the Young Indian. The private charitable company pays the Congress a sum of Rs. 50 lakh as consideration for transferring the Rs. 90 crore debts to it. In December 2010, a large chunk of share equity in AJL goes to Young Indian in lieu of the Rs. 90 crore. The shareholding of the original 761 shareholders is reduced to 1 per cent.AJL eventually ends up becoming a wholly owned company of Young Indian, which did it by buying the Rs. 90 crore debt from the Congress for a mere Rs. 50 lakh. Young Indian acquires complete control of AJL which has real estate assets of at least Rs. 2,000 crore in prime areas of New Delhi, Lucknow, Bhopal, Mumbai, Indore, Patna, Panchkula and other places. The conservative real estate worth of AJL is calculated at Rs. 5,000 crore. Having possession of the vast real estate, the Young Indian declares that it will not engage in publishing a newspaper, including The National Herald, as it is against its declared objective.
Sonia is one of the richest women in the world with huge capacity through the business organization called the Congress Party. The disruption of parliament under false pretenses through manipulation is one example why India should remain under their thumbs. Let’s see, where this case takes twists and turns.
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