Congress will return fire after Swamy exhausts ammo

Congress insiders say that there was no financial impropriety in the National Herald case and that the party is waiting for Subramanian Swamy to play all his cards, reports Renu Mittal

The Congress is not unduly worried about the charges levelled by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul regarding the change of ownership of the company, which used to bring out the Congress mouthpiece National Herald.

A senior leader said they are not in a hurry to clarify the charges. The party wants Swamy to finish his ammunition and only after that will the Congress make its position clear. The party and its leadership have nothing to hide and in the entire episode it is Swamy who will have the egg on his face, the leader claimed.

According to available facts, a public limited company called Associated Journals Ltd was set up by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938. It used to bring out a daily newspaper, National Herald, an Urdu paper called Quami Awaz and a few other publications.

Over the last 30 years, the paper folded up and huge losses were incurred by the company, since it was paying a salary to over 300 employees for doing no work. But because of the involvement of the Congress with the paper, the party did not want to sack anyone and court any controversies.

Sources say that over the last many years, under the direction of Sonia Gandhi it was decided to give a golden handshake to all the employees to ensure that not a single one of them either went to court or raised a protest.  

In other words, a large amount of money was doled out to employees as part of the voluntary retirement scheme and these funds came from the Congress. This is possibly the 'loan' being referred to by Swamy.       

Because it was an old company, which had numerous liabilities, a decision was made to float another company and the shares were transferred to ensure that the liabilities of the company did not continue, say sources. It is also being said that all the shareholders of Associated Journals were no more and it was difficult to acquire the company's share certificates.

The board of governors of the new company, Young Indian, has Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and Congress