Not many of us are authorities on the intricacies of the National Herald scandal and if, indeed, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have their paws in the cookie jar, we are not eyewitnesses. By that same token, no idea how many thousands of crores have been siphoned but none of these factors have anything to do with disrupting Parliament and its functioning. Let the legal system and the Enforcement Directorate do their respective jobs.

You don’t have to like Subramanian Swamy or even express faith in his credibility vis-à-vis his open hostility to the Gandhi family.

We know he loathes them heartily.

But none of this validates robbing him of his right as a citizen — if legally, he has all his mental faculties about him — from petitioning the courts with a case of alleged corruption. If the courts have decided, in their wisdom, that there is prima facie evidence to register the complaint, then let the courts proceed with it. The toxic texture of Swamy’s motive is incidental.

Not many of us are authorities on the intricacies of the National Herald scandal and if, indeed, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have their paws in the cookie jar, we are not eyewitnesses. By that same token, no idea how many thousands of crores have been siphoned but none of these factors have anything to do with disrupting Parliament and its functioning. Let the legal system and the Enforcement Directorate do their respective jobs.

The summons issued to two Indian citizens, namely Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, is not unusual. You have been asked to face the law. Go and do it. Millions of Indians do it every minute of every day.

Ballooning a summons into an indictment against the government and screaming indignation is unseemly. As is the conclusion that there is a gigantic political conspiracy afoot to pick on the mother and son and through them, the Congress, and through the party — as unbelievable as it sounds, the Indian people.

Consequently, a summons to court becomes a fertile excuse to hold Parliament hostage, block bills and demand a nationwide protest, while threatening a grand agitation.

Against what?

The right of one Swamy, also a citizen of India, to present a case to the High Court?

The right of the High Court to admit the plea if it finds, in its wisdom, enough grounds for doing that?

The right of the High Court to summon those accused in the case to a court for a hearing?

Are Sonia and Rahul held to a different measure under the law?

Again, what has all this got to do with the Winter session of Parliament.

To establish any nexus between the litigation and the disruptive conduct in Parliament is to first accept that the BJP (read Narendra Modi) as the power at the Centre, manipulated the legal system to deliberately hound, harass and bully Sonia and Rahul. And that the legal system then allowed itself to be so intimidated.

This is a dangerous premise and I don’t think we are ready to buy into that.

If we take one step in that direction, we are damning our judicial system beyond repair. So, hold that thought for now.

Back again to Parliament.

You are two of 543 people elected by the people to represent them in the House and move forward on acts of progress on their behalf. Your private travails, regardless of their validity or lack of it, do not figure in your duty to the people who elected you. I truly don’t know if you scammed National Herald funds and skimmed Rs five crore or 5,000 crore. Or even if you made an illegal deal on the land or misused your dynastic power. Let the judge decide.

If Swamy’s hatred is exposed, fine.

If the scam dies out and scams in India usually do, so be it.

If you come back into power you can get even, we have all been there, done that, seen that, big deal.

But for now, you get back to work. Stop blocking the procedures in the House. You are draining precious time, derailing the democratic processes, holding the nation to ransom and upstaging the legal system in the land. We already lost the whole of the Monsoon Session. And now it is happening again.

This is not democracy at work nor is it free expression. This is sabotage.

Technically, you are already in contempt of court.

Come 19 December, do what you expect 1.2 billion Indians to do. Fetch up in Court with grace and dignity, and file your appeal or your defence, and if you come out smelling like lilies, good for you. If you don’t, tough luck.

But, please don’t bring your dirty linen to Parliament... it is not a dhobi ghat.