Congress MPs stage a protest march at Parliament House complex to express their solidarity with the party Chief Sonia Gandhi who has to appear before the Enforcement Directorate.  (Photo | PTI)
Congress MPs stage a protest march at Parliament House complex to express their solidarity with the party Chief Sonia Gandhi who has to appear before the Enforcement Directorate. (Photo | PTI)

Whataboutery in ED questioning of Congress leadership

By all accounts, Congress president Sonia Gandhi did well during the first round of the Enforcement Directorate’s questioning in the National Herald money laundering case.

By all accounts, Congress president Sonia Gandhi did well during the first round of the Enforcement Directorate’s questioning in the National Herald money laundering case. Her responses were quick and firm compared to son Rahul Gandhi’s ponderous answers during his questioning by the ED spread over 50 hours earlier. Rahul changed his written statement at least thrice, perhaps on the advice of a battery of legal eagles during the fairly long lunch breaks he took to call on his ailing mother in the hospital ostensibly. Sonia knew what to expect as Rahul gave her a complete rundown on the line of questioning, and also since the same three-member team questioned both of them. Given her advanced age, 75, and history of ailments, the ED did not push her too hard, though there were conflicting accounts on who took the initiative to call it a day.

Whatever it was worth, the ED action came as a godsend for the moribund party that had almost forgotten it was the principal Opposition in the country. After its Udaipur ‘chintan baithak’, the Congress appears to have dusted itself up as it fights the perception battle. In Jairam Ramesh, the party has a new media head who is a razor-sharp intellectual and a quick-witted communicator. If the Trinamool Congress caught the grand old party leaden-footed when the presidential elections were announced, with Mamata Banerjee seeking to strengthen her case to lead a united opposition, the Congress got its act together in the vice-presidential polls, getting its candidate nominated and forcing Didi to do weird contortions to explain her party’s decision to abstain from voting.

While the Congress claims it is fighting political vendetta, the roots of the face-off lie in the harsh treatment the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi got under the UPA regime when Sonia was the de facto head of the government. The BJP argues 10, Janpath did everything possible to frame Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots case but failed, so it’s payback time. But the fact remains that whataboutery does little to serve the public good. There are much more grave matters that ought to hold the nation’s attention instead. The urge to score petty political points ought to be eschewed.

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