Almost 10 months after it created a political storm, the controversy surrounding the alleged land dealings of Robert Vadra , son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi , resurfaced last week with a series of investigative reports in The Hindu.

The controversy surfaced in October, when anti-graft activist Arvind Kejriwal and his associates accused Vadra of corruption. That snow-balled into a political controversy ahead of key state assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Kejriwal alleged that Vadra, husband of Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka, purchased at least 31 properties mostly in New Delhi worth more than ₹ 300 crore for which money has come from “unsecured interest-free loans from DLF Ltd". Both Vadra and DLF denied the allegations. The main opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded a probe into the matter.

A news round-up of the controversy so far:

16 August 2013

“ Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who has taken on Vadra for his controversial land deals in Gurgaon, admitted in a conversation with Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate that there is further investigation required to prove that Vadra falsified documents for the deals," CNN-IBN news channel said in a report.

“He said that the evidence mentioned in the report submitted in the matter revealed that Vadra had only ₹ 1 lakh in his account while a cheque for ₹ 7.5 crore was issued from the same account for the deal. He questioned as to why Omkareshwar property, from whom Skylight hospitality bought the land, did not deposit the cheque if the transactions were at the arms length principal," the report added.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Khemka said “that if all bureaucrats worked as “servants of the public," corruption scandals like the 2G spectrum allocation or the coal block scam would not have happened," the newspaper said in a report.

“I have a very sincere and firm belief that if bureaucrats were really public servants, there would have been no 2G or coal mine scam. Out of every 100 bureaucrats, 10 are always ready to join the queue (for favours) and it is enough if you pick up (your officer) from them," the newspaper cited Khemka as saying.

15 August 2013

“Rao Inderjit Singh, a three-time Congress MP, four-time MLA and a former minister, has publicly demanded a detailed investigation into the 21,000-acres of land licensed for various uses in Haryana in the past eight years, including three acres that was part of the Vadra-DLF deal. Fearless of the political fallout, Singh has now told The Hindu that he can reveal many more names who have been involved in such illegal transactions," The Hindu newspaper said in a report.

“An independent all-encompassing inquiry will widen the net, haul in big fish and ensure punishment for the guilty. I will take names when I have the evidence. And will use the evidence at a time of my choosing." the newspaper cited Singh as saying.

14 August 2013

“Mocking the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law for creating a “unique business model through which hundreds of crores of rupees can be earned without making any investment," senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha requested the government to honour him by starting a “Vadra School of Management"," The Times of India reported.

“Not stopping at just that, Sinha even proposed that finance minister P. Chidambaram get himself an admission to the Vadra School of Management and learn a thing or two about how to generate huge profits without investing any money or resources. “He can apply this business model to resurrect the Indian economy and arrest the fall of the rupee," Sinha said with a more-than-visible glint in the eye," the newspaper report noted.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party leader and UP minister Azam Khan took a dig at Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, saying no inquiry should be ordered against her son-in-law Robert Vadra since they enjoyed special privileges," The Times of India said in another report. “Sonia Gandhi ke damaad ki jaanch hona bhi nahi chahiye .... akhir yeh unka haq hai" (There should be no inquiry against Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law .... after all, it is their privilege)," Azam said, according to the report.

“Onkareshwar Properties Pvt. Ltd, the company that sold land in village Shikohpur in Haryana to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s company M/s Sky Light Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, has a record of links with politicians," The Indian Express newspaper has said. “In fact, it was first owned by Govind (Kumar) Kanda. He is a member of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee and brother of Congress legislator Gopal Kanda who is in jail in Delhi on charges of abetment in the Geetika Sharma suicide case. Records with The Indian Express show that M/s Onkareshwar Properties Pvt. Ltd was constituted as a company on 28 September 2004 with two directors: Govind Kanda, a resident of Sirsa, and Pradeep Kumar, a resident of Gurgaon. Both owned 5,000 equity shares in the company which was registered in New Delhi," the report further said.

Meanwhile, a top BJP leader “sat on Vadra files for months," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has alleged, CNN-IBN reports.

“Everyone in Delhi knew what Robert Vadra was upto. I should say here on record that the file came to Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal not from any hidden source but it was sitting in a BJP National leader’s table for several months and he didn’t have the courage to speak," the news channel cited AAP leader Yogendra Yadav as saying.

13 August 2013

The Congress has ruled out any discussion on the issue of Robert Vadra’s land deals in Parliament, and has “dared Yashwant Sinha to move court after he sought a probe by Special Investigating Team into the matter," a Press Trust of India report said.

Rejecting BJP’s demand that government give a reply in Parliament on the issue, Congress spokesperson Sandip Dikshit said, “He (Vadra) is an individual. Not a member of House. We do not discuss individuals in Parliament."

“There are large number of forums in the country. They are welcome to go anywhere they like.... If he (Sinha) feels, he can go to the court. Nobody is stopping him or anybody else from either approaching the court or the government of Haryana," Dikshit said, according to the report.

“CNN-IBN has found that the Haryana government probe appointed to inquire into Khemka’s charges has raised more questions than answers as Khemka was stonewalled at every step, not just by the state government but also by officers of his own cadre," the news channel said in a report.

“CNN-IBN has now accessed documents which showed that none of the IAS officers that Khemka reached out to for information to prepare his report helped him out. IAS officer Y.S. Malik had denied Khemka’s information citing rules, to which Khemka wrote back saying he should be given the details to decide whether it is relevant or not. IAS officer S.S. Dhillon of the town and country planning department gave no information and said he was not aware of any inquiry report. Meanwhile, state chief secretary IAS officer P.K. Chaudhary said sharing of the information will harm the prestige of the premier administrative service," the report further said.

“The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP), the rival parties that are supporting the United Progressive Alliance from outside, came to the rescue of the Congress on Tuesday, as the main opposition attacked the ruling coalition over the allegations against Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra," Business Standard said in a news report.

“The SP and the BSP’s vocal support came as a big relief for the Congress, whose other allies such as the National Conference and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) did not defend either the government or Gandhi. No Congress minister spoke on the issue on record. On Monday, Congress member of Parliament Rao Inderjeet Singh, who is negotiating for entry into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had spoken up about Vadra," the report went on to add.

“Aggressively taking on the issue of alleged land scams involving UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, the BJP on Tuesday demanded setting up of a Supreme Court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) to examine Vadra’s land deals across Congress-ruled states like Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan," the Times of India said in a story on Monday.

“Our demand is that the SIT, which should be a multi-disciplinary authority to examine the alleged violation of the banking law, company law and income-tax law through these land deals, be set up and the probe monitored by the Supreme Court," BJP leader Yashwant Sinha told reporters outside the Parliament, the newspaper report said.

“Congress MP from Gurgaon Rao Inderjit Singh was staring at expulsion from the party after he fanned allegations of the involvement of Robert Vadra," The Times of India newspaper said in a report. “The incriminating comment was seen as Singh’s attempt to cause discomfiture to the party leadership," the report added.

“Angry party sources attributed Singh’s outburst to what they called his pique that the Congress had given a free run to his bete-noire and chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, at the expense of his claims. They also said the MP was planning to leave the party, and that the attack on the Congress leadership was an attempt at “resume padding"," the report further said.

“Crony capitalism needs a businessman and a helpful politician to pull it off. In the case of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, the friendly politician could well be Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana chief minister," says an opinion piece in Firstpost.com.

“The Hooda government’s role in helping Vadra make big money from real estate deals is not without precedent. One of the original crony capitalists in this country was Sanjay Gandhi, son of then prime minister Indira Gandhi. His business dream of making a low-priced car also depended on a friendly Haryana chief minister, Bansi Lal," it goes on to say.

A report in The Economic Times newspaper has said that “Satyanand Yajee, director of Onkareshwar Properties, which sold 3.5 acre in Shikohpur village to Vadra’s Skylight Properties, is general secretary of the All India Freedom Fighters Organisation and is in charge of constructing and maintaining a memorial in the name of Hooda’s father Chaudhary Ranbir Singh in Rohtak."

“While the ruling Congress has accused Khemka of acting at the behest of BJP, the IAS officer has demanded an inquiry by the Comptroller and Auditor General into the role of the state government in facilitating the deals," the report goes on to say.

“Ashok Khemka on Monday sought to clear the “erroneous impression" that he had personally shared with the media the allegations against Robert Vadra, saying that the charges were actually part of the report submitted by him to the Haryana government," a Press Trust of India report said.

“Some reports appearing in a section of the media give the erroneous impression that the allegations are being made by me in person to the media. But the fact is that the statements form part of the official report submitted to the State Government by me on 21 May 2013," Khemka, the secretary and director general of the state archives, said in a statement here," according to the report.

“Meanwhile, main Opposition INLD today submitted a memorandum to governor Jagannath Pahadia demanding a judicial inquiry into the Vadra-DLF deal and other alleged land scams which have come to light under the Hooda government," the report went on to say.

“Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal Monday sought a probe by a sitting Supreme Court Judge in all land deals of the Vadra family, especially in the Congress ruled states of Haryana and Rajasthan," a news report in Zee News said.

“Badal said it was imperative for UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to come clean on this and order an enquiry by a sitting Supreme Court Judge to bring the truth to the fore," the report added.

12 August 2013

“The BJP has decided to attack Congress president Sonia Gandhi directly over the alleged irregularities in land deals involving her son-in-law Robert Vadra, setting aside the party’s earlier inhibitions about specifically targeting the Gandhi family over corruption," The Indian Express newspaper reported.

“It is reliably learnt that all senior BJP leaders, including BJP parliamentary party chief L.K. Advani, party president Rajnath Singh and leaders of opposition in both Houses are on board with the decision," the report went on to say.

“A few voices in the party were against resorting to personal attacks, sources said, but the final decision was to press ahead and demand a high-level probe into the allegations, which have been around for some time now," it further said.

Rao Inderjit Singh, the Lok Sabha member from Gurgaon, who belongs to the Congress party, has demanded “a thorough probe" into the land deals of Vadra, party chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, India Today has reported.

“The Haryana government is not transparent. A lot of shady deals have taken place and if Robert Vadra is guilty, then punish him. There has to be a thorough probe. The integrity of the chief minister (Bhupinder Singh Hooda) is in doubt," Singh was quoted as having said in the report.

The Hindu says in a 10 August report that Ashok Khemka, even after he was removed from his position as the director-general, land holdings and land records, and inspector-general of registration, Haryana, has been digging deeper into Vadra’s land deals.

“The Corporation Bank cheque bearing number 607251 for ₹ 7.5 crores, mentioned in sale deed no. 4928 of 12 February 2008, did not belong to Robert Vadra’s company, Skylight Hospitality. It is “likely that a fictitious cheque number was shown by the company with the full consent and knowledge of DLF to enable it to get legal title of land," Mr. Khemka states in his submission to the Haryana government. This, because at the time of registering the sale deed, Skylight Hospitality did not have the money in its accounts to pay the ₹ 7.95 crores needed for land cost and stamp duty on the deed. Because no money changed hands as stated in the registered sale deed, and the stamp duty of ₹ 45 lakhs was also paid by Onkareshwar Properties and not Mr. Vadra’s company as stated in the deed, this amounts to making false statements punishable under Section 82 of the Registration Act, he states," the report says.

“Consequently, in the balance sheets filed by the company as on 31 March 2008, the bank balance is wrongly shown as a book overdraft of ₹ 7,94,00,000, because the cheque for ₹ 7.5 crores was never presented, says he. Within two months of this, Mr. Vadra had entered into an agreement to sell the land to DLF for ₹ 58 crores and began receiving the money in instalments, as advance. The first of these instalments came in June 2008 and Mr. Khemka states that “The payment to Onkareshwar Properties was made from the advance money that was received from DLF Universal." In other words, Mr. Vadra’s company began receiving money into its accounts without investing any of its own funds to buy the land," the report further notes, citing Khemka’s probe report.

Haryana rejects land reforms; Haryana Chief Minister denies wrongdoing; lawyer rubbishes Khemka report

In a story based on the report of the officer who was transferred for asking questions on the Vadra-DLF deal, Ashok Khemka, The Hindu said that the officer has alleged that the Haryana government rejected key reforms to curb ‘benami’ deals. The Hindi word ‘benami’ simply means ‘nameless.’

“In chapters four and five of his reply to the committee, Mr. Khemka says: ‘A small but powerful lobby of politicians and bureaucrats having [a] vested interest in panchayat lands succeeded in stifling a good legislative reform that would have helped prevent misappropriation of panchayat lands in the future.’ The committee, set up by the Haryana government to look into Khemka’s October allegations was asked to “look into this issue too, but chose to ignore it completely," the newspaper report says.

“During his 80-day tenure in the land records office, Mr. Khemka had unearthed several land scams—particularly in Gurgaon and Faridabad—in which valuable panchayat and forest lands were being usurped by powerful land sharks with the apparent complicity of the authorities by misusing the provision of the Consolidation Act. Citing examples, his reply lists several modes of abuse of consolidation proceedings with the aim of grabbing panchayat lands. Common hilly and forest lands in the Aravalis are getting fragmented and privatized in the name of consolidation, and panchayat land in ‘prime properties of Faridabad was partitioned to favour a few VVIPs,’ he notes," the report adds.

Meanwhile, Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that his government had not “lent any support to any individual or company on illegal grounds" according to a report in the Hindustan Times. State chief secretary Pradeep Kumar Chaudhery told the newspaper that the state government would examine Khemka’s reply. “We want to be fair to him and also be responsible in coming to a conclusion on the findings drawn by the committee.", the report went on to say.

And lawyer K.T.S. Tulsi dismissed as “high on rhetoric and low on facts" IAS officer Ashok Khemka’s “voluminous reply," the Press Trust of India said in a report.

“Haryana minister Randeep Singh Surjewalaalso sought to reject Khemka’s reply terming it ‘cacophony of allegations and sensationalisation by vested interests’," the report further said.

11 August 2013

Khemka says he acted in public interest

The Hindu, again quoting Khemka’s report, has said that according to the bureaucrat, he acted against Vadra after being transferred from his position only so that he would not betray public trust. Khemka was director-general, Land Holdings and Land Records, and Inspector-General of Registration, Haryana, until he was transferred soon after he started investigating the deal.

“In his detailed reply to these allegations, Mr. Khemka has said that ‘leaving charge without passing these orders would have been an act of cowardice and betrayal of public trust…. And to abdicate the responsibility just because VVIPs are involved in the sham transaction would amount to dereliction of duty’," the newspaper report says.

“Mr. Khemka’s repeated queries, asking the committee to provide him with any representation or appeal that might have been received from Mr. Vadra or his company, Skylight Hospitality, DLF Universal Ltd or Onkareshwar Properties against the cancellation of their land mutation, met with no response. He notes: ‘When Mr. Vadra was not ostensibly aggrieved with the inquiry, why and how are some functionaries in the state government aggrieved instead? Is the same yardstick applied for an ordinary citizen?’," it goes on to say.

10 August 2013

Vadra used “falsified documents"

The Hindu, citing an investigation report, said that Vadra used “falsified documents" and “sham transactions" to “collect premium on land deals."

“Ashok Khemka, the Haryana IAS officer who cancelled a land deal mutation between Robert Vadra and real estate giant DLF Universal Ltd last October, has told the Haryana government that Mr. Vadra falsified documents and executed a series of sham transactions for 3.53 acres land in Shikohpur village of Gurgaon, thereby pocketing a hefty premium on a commercial colony license through money that he could account for," the newspaper report said. “He has made these assertions in a 100-page reply to a report of a three-member enquiry committee set up by the Haryana government last October to look into the Vadra-DLF deal. The committee had indicted Mr. Khemka for cancelling the deal. Mr. Khemka’s reply, submitted on 21 May and accessed by The Hindu, has been put together with the help of publicly available documents and his own findings, after the government stonewalled his efforts to get the official documents concerning the sale, issue and transfer of the license to DLF," it added.

“Mr. Khemka states that both the sale deed of February 12, 2008—through which Mr. Vadra’s company, Skylight Hospitality, bought the land from Onkareshwar Properties—and the letter of intent for granting a commercial licence to his company issued by the DTCP in March 2008 are sham transactions, executed only to enable Mr. Vadra to collect market premium accruing to him due to state largesse," the report said.

26 October 2012

“Haryana’s deputy commissioners have found no irregularities in Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s land deals. A panel of four Deputy Commissioners has given Vadra’s deals a clean chit. Four Haryana deputy commissioners conducted inquiries into Vadra’s deals after IAS officer Ashok Khemka’s order, dated October 12," CNN-IBN said in a report.

In an opinion piece, Firstpost.com has compared Vadra to Nitin Gadkari and has said the former is better off considering no probe was ordered into his business dealings despite the fact that they were all in public domain.

“What is interesting here is that Vadra’s dealings with DLF are also in the public domain and the news was all coming in the newspapers, as Moily put it in Gadkari’s context. That being the case, shouldn’t Moily have ordered a “discreet inquiry" against Vadra as well?," the piece asks.

“The investigative mills of the government grind slowly – but only when allegations of corruption are levelled against one of its own. When the charges relate to a leader of the principal Opposition party, the same leaden-footed investigative agencies begin to show extraraordinary agility and earnestness of purpose. Witness the alacrity with which a whole battery of investigative agencies and regulators – from the Income Tax Department to the Registrar of Companies – have responded to the ongoing revelations into the web of deceit that BJP president Nitin Gadkari wove. The daily drip-drip of media investigations into Gadkari’s maze of companies and their shadowy transactions with contractors clearly establish a dubious relationship that thrives at the intersection of business and politics, from which both parties derive unjust benefits," Firstpost.com notes in another opinion piece.

“Haryana’s whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka on Tuesday said the committee set up to probe his order on Robert Vadra-DLF land deal could be an “eyewash". He also lashed out at his fellow IAS officers, who, according to Khemka, have become “greater than god"," The Times of India said in a report.

23 October 2012

“After maintaining a brief silence over the probe he launched into a plot of land acquired by a Robert Vadra-owned company, IAS officer Ashok Khemka has said the three-member committee formed by the Haryana government was in violation of a high court order," Firstpost.com reported.

“According to Khemka, the IAS officials do not have the jurisdiction to probe the orders that were passed by him and was merely a cover up," the report added.

“The BJP has said that its president, Nitin Gadkari, is willing to accept and cooperate with “any sort of inquiry" into allegations of dubious funding for his business, Purti Power and Sugar. However, the Opposition party says there has to be a level playing field for investigations centred on politicians who are accused of graft. The Congress, it said, is protecting its own," NDTV news channel said in a report.

“Unlike the Congress, our president has said he is open to any inquiry," said BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday. She compared this response to the case of Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra, who has been accused of accepting sweetheart deals from real estate giant DLF. In exchange, the Congress government in Haryana allegedly did favours that promoted DLF’s vast business interests in the state. Mr Vadra, DLF and the Haryana government have refuted the charges. A series of senior cabinet ministers enthusiastically defended Mr Vadra -a point of much criticism among the opposition, the media and the activists headed by Arvind Kejriwal, who has launched a new political party and “outed" Mr Vadra’s DLF connection by releasing documents about their transactions at two different press conferences," the NDTV report said.

22 October 2012

“Even as the Haryana government formed a three-member committee to probe into the charges levelled by whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka against Robert Vadra-DLF land deal in Gurgaon, the state government has shied away from naming either ‘Vadra’ or ‘DLF’ in the order," The Times of India said in a report.

“... the government order announcing the setting up of the probe committee just gave the numbers of the two Khemka orders and instructed the panel to conduct an inquiry into it without naming ‘Vadra’ and ‘DLF’," the report further said.

“The India Against Corruption (IAC) has done a gutsy and commendable job in bringing these findings to the forefront. Vadra’s shady dealings were common gossip in banking circles for years. The media knew it well too. However, it is the IAC that crystallized the outrage, presented some documents and made it a topic of household discussion," author Chetan Bhagat has said in an opinion piece in The Times of India.

“IAC’s next move, however, demanding an independent investigation into Vadra, is probably going to disappoint them. Firstly, a fair and independent investigation is nearly impossible in India against the Gandhi family, especially when they are in power. Second, and more important, is even if a fair investigation is conducted, there may not be much illegality in what Vadra did (ignoring the charges of fraudulent financial statement, as alleged in some news reports). After all, Vadra made a friend in DLF, and DLF helped Vadra out. That’s all the paper trail may reveal, despite exhaustive investigations. In fact, when powerful people help each other, they are smart enough to keep the paper trail sacrosanct. Expensive lawyers and CAs work hard to ensure the deals have a semblance of legality, whatever the intent. Proving quid-pro-quo is going to be even more difficult. A company like DLF has a vast presence. It needs the government to cooperate with it in hundreds of places. DLF does not need to do a quid pro quo or transactional help. It would rather do favors and make friends in the government. Favours, as the eponymous character in the novel The Godfather would say, that could be utilized at a later date in the form of return favours," Bhagat goes on to say.

Journalist Manoj Joshi has said in an opinion piece that the “code of collusion" between politicians is “breaking down."

“Living as we do in the age of reverse swing, we may be upon a new era when the old rules that bound the Indian elite in a culture of complicity may be getting over. This seems to be the takeaway from the charges that are being levelled at Robert Vadra, businessman and son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi," Joshi says in an opinion piece in Daily Mail.

“The great change that is occurring now promises to transform the Indian polity because at its root is the urge towards democratisation. There is a markedly increased assertion of the underclass - defined by caste, economic level or even gender. There is an aspiration of all Indians to get ahead and improve their station in life and prosper. In this perspective corruption and malfeasance by the political class and the bureaucracy are seen as attempts to hold back people from what is legitimately theirs. The key factors amplifying the trend are the growth of literacy and what are called Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). In India they are manifested by the wide penetration of the mobile phone, newspapers and the television across the country," he goes on to say.

“Chicanery in land deals was not the only interesting takeaway from the controversy surrounding the association between real estate major DLF and Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. L’affaire Vadra also exposed government highhandedness against officers doing their job," an opinion piece in The Economic Times says.

“The Haryana government shunted out IAS officer Ashok Khemka for launching a probe into Vadra-DLF deals. He revealed soon after that he has been transferred more than 40 times in 20 years of service. Is that legal? Khemka has challenged the transfer, citing the IAS (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 2010. The rule guarantees a fixed tenure of two years for officers. But here is the catch: the rule is not implemented by half of Indian states. Even in states like Haryana which have technically adopted it, the central government has not monitored its implementation," the piece goes on to say.

21 October 2012

“The BJP is likely to turn the heat on the government over a string of controversies involving Robert Vadra and Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid," The Indian Express newspaper said, referring to the winter session of Parliament, which is likely to begin on 21 November.

“Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has threatened to bring a no-confidence motion against the government. Also the DMK, which supports the government from outside, is likely to oppose the FDI in multi-brand retail along with the Samajwadi Party. The monsoon session was washed away with the BJP demanding resignation of the prime minister over the coal block allocation controversy," the report added.

“Anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal today challenged Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh to persuade Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to answer questions put by India Against Corruption," Business Standard reported.

“He also asked if either Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister or Rahul Gandhi would come for a public debate. “I request Mr Digvijay to encourage Mrs Gandhi, Prime Minister or Mr Rahul Gandhi to come for a public debate. It could be a place and time of their choice. Let’s question each other and let the public question us on personal and public issues. Is Digvijay ready?" he asked," the report added.

“The Congress, after being cornered over party president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in law Robert Vadra’s land deals, has now said that it has enough evidence of corruption against families of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior BJP leader LK Advani. However, General Secretary Digvijaya Singh said his party will never disclose the details," CNN-IBN news channel has said.

“The Indian Against Corruption (IAC) activists on Sunday held a protest outside Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s residence in Delhi. Over a hundred activists, who were protesting against the Haryana government for allegedly favouring and facilitating land deals between Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and real estate giant DLF, also clashed with the police," the Zee News channel reports.

“Even after Haryana ordered a probe into the actions of officials, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had insisted that his government had not favoured anyone in land deals. The state also countered Khemka’s claims over his transfer," the report noted.

“From Bikaner to Haryana, the one common thread in multiple land purchases by Robert Vadra that run into nearly 800 hectares is a name that is, by now, familiar to Bikaner’s property brokers — Mahesh Nagar. This Faridabad resident is the man authorised by Vadra, the son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, to register property documents on his behalf, including 20-odd properties purchased between 2009 and 2011 in Bikaner for ₹ 2.85 crore," DNA said in a report.

“While Nagar has remained low-key, documents available with DNA show that the businessman not only held the power of attorney for Vadra-owned companies that purchased 20-odd properties in Kolayat tehsil of Bikaner, but was also the executant in over half a dozen other land agreement registrations in the region during the same period between 2009 and 2011. Nagar’s name is stated in the registration records for six land purchases in Kolayat by a company named Alpha Heights Pvt Ltd based in Daryaganj, Delhi, and another purchase made by a Bhubaneshwar-based real estate marketing company. These include a 13.67-hectare plot and a 8.81-ha plot purchased in August 2009 for ₹ 31,00,000 and ₹ 18,70,000. The seller in these two deals was Bikaner investor Vineet Asopa, who received cheques bearing Vadra’s signature, though records of the Registrar of Companies show the directors of Alpha Heights as being Anju and Amit Yadav of New Delhi. Other properties purchased by Alpha Heights include a 5.5-ha plot purchased for ₹ 18 lakh, a 1.72-ha plot for ₹ 5,60,000 and a 0.65-ha plot purchased for ₹ 2,70,000, all in August 2009," the report said.

“The fact-finding committee set up by the Haryana government to probe the charges levelled by IAS officer Ashok Khemka against Robert Vadra’s land deals will probe only two of Khemka letters within a month," The Indian Express said in a report.

“While the first letter pertains to Khemka ordering a probe into the under-valuation of land purchased by Vadra or his companies or his companies in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mewat and Palwal districts, in the second letter, he had cancelled Vadra’s mutation in Shikohpur village," the report said.

20 October 2012

There is a fresh twist in L’affaire Vadra. Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has said that Robert Vadra was involved in the alleged Commonwealth Games (CWG) scam and has demanded a probe, The Times of India said in a report.

“Khan, in fact, created ripples by alleging that Vadra got contracts of several projects related to 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG), which was marred by the scam estimated to be of over ₹ 10,000 crore. He said that if the Congress led central government fails in taking any action in corruption cases, people will teach lesson to the Congress in 2014 Lok Sabha elections as they did in the case of Mayawati by voting against her in UP assembly elections," the report said.

“Addressing media persons, Khan said that he has been demanding independent probe against Robert Vadra for getting several contracts related to the CWG since long. “People want to know how the son-in-law of Congress president got the contracts in his name and other people and what was his qualification and what was the quality of the work," he said. He also said that the probe should include Vadra’s with real estate giant DLF," the report further said.

“Corporation Bank on Friday reiterated it had not extended overdraft facility of ₹ 7.94 crore to a company owned by Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and has no role in the raging controversy over his land deal with realty major DLF. “The bank has no role in the entire controversy," Corporation Bank chairman and managing director Ajai Kumar told reporters in Kochi," the Press Trust of India has reported.

“He said the bank had not extended any overdraft facility to Sky Light Hospitality, the company owned by Vadra. “We have not extended any overdraft facility. Some accounting practices have been followed by the company and I cannot comment on that," he said," the report adds.

An opinion piece in Firstpost.com has compared L’affaire Vadra to a similar episode in the 1980s surrounding Imelda Marcos, a Filipino politician and widow of Ferdinand Marcos, the former President of The Philippines.

“It’s amazing what one gets to see when the palace doors come loose on their hinges," the piece says.

“In 1986, when a ‘people’s power’ revolution in the Philippines toppled Ferdinand Marcos from power, ending a 21-year dictatorial reign, the dirty unwashed masses, who had been robbed blind by Marcos’ corrupt ways for a generation, got a chance to see what had been going on behind the high walls of Malacanang Palace. They learnt, for instance, that during those 20-plus years in power, he and his diva-esque wife Imelda Marcos had embezzled public funds running to billions of dollars and channelled them into accounts and investments in Switzerland, the US and elsewhere," the piece notes further.

“Much the same can be said of the frenzy of land acquisition by our politicians—and, at least in one case, a politician’s son-in-law—the sordid details of which have been tumbling out of cupboards in recent days. In almost all the cases that have come to light, the modus operandi for instant fortunes is simple: corner large plots of agricultural land, bought on the cheap from farmers, change the land-use pattern (which those in positions of power can get done in double-quick time), and sell it to real-estate developers for windfall profits. It’s the alchemy of the new age, only it comes with infinitely better return on investment," it goes on to say.

Another report, this time in India Today, has detailed Vadra’s land deals in Bikaner.

“What is significant about Vadra’s land dealings in Bikaner is that he was among the first to buy property there when Bikaner’s Gajner town of Kolayat tehsil was hardly seen as an investment destination because of its aridness and lack of infrastructure," the report notes.

“It all started in December 2008, when Ashok Gehlot ousted the BJP’s Vasundhara Raje in the assembly elections and came to power in the desert state," it further says.

19 October

Ajay Singh, the managing editor of Governance Now, has said that the Indian ruling elite has a “code of silence".

“Like the Italian Mafiosi bound by the pact of secrecy known as Omerta, India’s elites are intrinsically secretive. They fight back bitterly whenever this unwritten code is challenged. This is why Jinnah’s eating habits and Nehru’s notings on the Indo-China war remain taboos in public discourse so far. Gandhi, whose life was his message, is the sole exception. But in the age of social media, this code has come under siege," Singh says.

“Take the case of Robert Vadra whose shenanigans were talked about in a hushed tone in Delhi’s power circles. But the whole issue was forbidden in public discourse. Similarly BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s antics that cross the boundary of public morality are never a hidden fact. His dalliances with industrialists of questionable credentials are frowned upon within the Hindutva family. Yet the issue is a taboo not only for the BJP but also for other political leaders. In this context, the reaction of BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, and RSS’s second-in-command Bhaiyya-ji Joshi in defence of Gadkari was predictable. But what is really amazing is the thickness of the hide that the political class has come to acquire over the years to become totally impervious to legal, moral or ethical values. The Vadra-Gadkari episode just exemplified that," he goes on to say.

“Arvind Kejriwal could be accused, with some reason, of being like a Bofors gun—he ‘shoots and scoots’. The specifics of the allegations that he makes in each case may be wrong or off the mark, but he is not waiting to provide explanations or get into arguments, because he has moved on to his next target. It is hard to tell whether this tactic will be effective, particularly in the face of a “club class" of politicians who are willing to brazen it out, come what may," T.N. Ninan says in an opinion piece in Business Standard.

“The question to ask is whether, when charges are flying thick and fast in all directions, the institution of a Lokpal—which the movement led by Anna Hazare had made its single-point demand last year—would have made a difference? Would it, in the first instance, have provided protection to those who feel wrongly targeted? After all, a reference to the Lokpal would have led to proper scrutiny, and clearing of the air if the charges were baseless—so that reputation damage was avoided. Salman Khurshid would not have needed to threaten answers written in blood, if all he had to do was present his case to a Lokpal. Similarly, those hurling accusations today would have had to be more responsible because any charges they make would quickly have been put to the test. Finally, those guilty would not have been able to brazen it out, as is being done today, because their actions could have been referred to the Lok Pal by any ordinary citizen," he goes on to say.

Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN has compared the demeanour of Robert Vadra to that of Upinder Singh, an academic and daughter of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and asks if Vadra “could learn" from her.

“At a seminar in Delhi a few years ago, a soft-spoken, petite woman in a crumpled sari was one of the panellists. She engaged in the debate and then quietly left in a self-driven Maruti car with hardly anyone noticing. Except for her associates, few others would have known that they had been in the company of the Prime Minister’s daughter: Professor Upinder Singh, professor of history at Delhi University," Sardesai says.

“Since the era of Indira Gandhi, who allowed her son Sanjay to benefit from the largesse of a Haryana chief minister of another era (remember Bansi Lal and Maruti?), almost every Indian Prime Minister has had to face the accusation of allowing proximity to power to benefit their relatives in some form or the other. In that sense, Manmohan Singh and his family stand out as glorious exceptions to the rule. Dr Singh is perhaps fortunate that his family has been primarily in academia and thus is less likely to be influenced by a charmed power circle. Robert Vadra is a businessman, and to that extent, was always more susceptible to the charge of misusing his position for monetary benefits. Ditto the case with another businessman-turned neta Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of the late Andhra chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Both Vadra and Reddy have every right to be in business, but both as a result also have to explain as to how their assets multiplied several times over when their families were in power," he goes on to say.

“The likes of an Arvind Kejriwal have astutely tapped into this growing rage against an unequal system and looked for specific ‘targets’ who are seen to symbolize the privileges of the powerful. The evidence need not be foolproof, criminality need not be established, but in an atmosphere where there is a general ‘perception’ that netas and their influential kith and kin are given special treatment, the anti-corruption campaign has become synonymous with a desire of the ‘aam admi’ to get ‘even’ with the ‘khaas admi’ who is seen to be unaccountable. You don’t need to establish a quid pro quo in the dealings of the rich and powerful; the widespread ‘perception’ that such cosy networks exist is enough to convince people that undue benefits have been conferred," he further says.

“Under fire for land deals with Robert Vadra companies, DLF is rocking politics in Himachal also as both BJP and Congress trade charges, alleging that land has been sold to the company in violation of state laws," Hill Post reported.

“Defending charges of having sold land to DLF in Kasauli area, Arun Sen, a brother-in-law of former union minister Virbhadra Singh denied that he had anything to do with the real estate company," the report said.

“In support of his argument, he even circulated copies of two documents in which permissions for land transactions to DLF Realities and Isawel Builders had been granted in March 2008, at a time when the new BJP government was only 3 months old after winning elections on 30th December, 2007," the report further said.

In an analytical piece, Firstpost.com has said that effectively Vadra’s land in Bikaner was paid for by DLF.

“Vadra bought these plots of land through his companies Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd, Sky Light Realty Pvt Ltd, Real Earth Estates Pvt Ltd, North India IT Park Pvt Ltd and Blue Breeze Trading Pvt Ltd. The question is where did these companies get the money to buy this land? The one word answer is DLF," the report said as it went on to explain how the real estate major effectively paid for the deals.

“After three days of its announcement, the Haryana government formed on Friday an inquiry committee headed by additional chief secretary, revenue, Krishan Mohan, with two other senior members of the state government to examine Ashok Khemka’s stand on the land deals involving Robert Vadra and DLF in Gurgaon and Palwal districts," Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

“The inquiry which was to be completed within a month by the committee is supposed to look into the claims made by Khemka on the land deals involving Robert Vadra’s M/s Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd and DLF Universal," the report added.

Tehelka has said that IAS officer Ashok Khemka taking on Robert Vadra is akin to David taking on Goliath.

“It was not just the Vadra-DLF deal. Earlier, Khemka had specifically named six companies owned by Vadra that needed to be probed. Khemka also ordered deputy commissioners-cum-registrars of Palwal, Mewat, Gurgaon and Faridabad to scrutinise all documents registered by Vadra and his companies to assess the real values of the properties mentioned," the report said.

“Khemka’s is the typical story of the boy from a humble background who entered the premier civil services of the country. His father was an accountant with a jute factory in Kolkata, where Khemka studied till Class XII before moving to IIT Guwahati. He then did his PhD from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai," it went on to say.

“Sadly, this is not the first time that an upright office has been hounded by the state government. Haryana’s track record in dealing with another whistleblower, Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, has been much chronicled as a matter of national shame. Chaturvedi was transferred 12 times after he exposed several irregularities in the state forest department. The Haryana government had to revoke his suspension after the Centre intervened and had him transferred out of the state. But the State continues to hound Chaturvedi with criminal cases," it said.

A report published by Firstpost.com has said that Arvind Kejriwal may have “goofed up" on a deal between DLF and the Haryana government.

“Some respite for Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and DLF! The alleged Vadra-DLF nexus is not so apparent in the 350-acre land deal at Gurgaon that the Haryana government had struck with DLF through international competitive bids in 2009. However, the 3.5 acre Manesar plot which Vadra sold to DLF in a sweetheart deal in 2008 certainly smells fishy. It remains dubious and unexplained," the report says.

“Documents accessed by Firstpost reveal that Arvind Kejriwal may have erred in facts by linking a ₹ 1,700 crore DLF deal in Haryana as quid pro quofor various favours shown to Vadra in other real estate deals, including the purchase of flats from DLF at undervalued rates. Kejriwal had raised five questions against the deal. All his claims can, however, be contradicted with documents, which narrate the sequence of events leading to the 350-acre land deal with DLF," the report further says.

“The Haryana government is preparing ground for action against whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who had cancelled the mutation of Robert Vadra-DLF land deal on October 15 based on a letter by director general of town and country planning department T C Gupta. This letter was submitted to chief secretary P K Chaudhery on Wednesday," a report in The Times of India has said.

“It’s another matter that with continuous transfers of the whistleblower IAS officer, the Haryana government may be violating its own rules framed in 2010. In a notification on October 13, 2010, the government had fixed minimum tenure of posting of IAS officers holding various assignments, including director general, as two years. No minimum period was fixed for the chief secretary," the report further noted.

Meanwhile, The Indian Express has detailed a set of other land deals that Khemka was probing as director general. consolidation and land records.

“In just over two months in that post, Khemka had taken on a mining baron for allegedly usurping 53 acres of panchayat land in Manesar; an IAS officer, Praveen Kumar, for allegedly allowing partition and demarcation of panchayat land in favour of his mother while he was DC of Faridabad; IAS officers S C Gupta and Anil Kumar for the alleged transfer of panchayat land in favour of private companies; and a minister for allegedly using a consolidation officer close to him to transfer land in favour of his chartered accountant. He was aware of the possible consequences. “I am threatened of adverse action and transfer in case an order is made against such racketeering. Overcoming this fear I have passed a revisionary order…" he wrote in a September 22 order dealing with a land transfer in which a minister and some IAS officers were allegedly involved," the report said.

“In a flurry of deals between June 2009 and August 2011, Robert Vadra purchased at least 20 plots of land collectively measuring more than 770 hectares in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district, in a region that would see prices spiraling soon after," DNA newspaper has said in a report.

“A clutch of investors, including Vadra, apparently privy to information on upcoming industrial projects in the vicinity, reaped huge profits with land values appreciating by up to 40 times since 2009.

Click here to read the list of plots Data from the office of the registrar in Bikaner shows 20 properties Vadra purchased through companies, including Real Earth Estates Pvt Ltd, North India IT Park Pvt Ltd, and Skylight Realty Pvt Ltd. All the deals were executed on his behalf by Mahesh Nagar, brother of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee member Lalit Nagar. These companies together invested Rs2.85 crore in barren land here during this period," the report further notes.

“When Haryana went to polls in the autumn of 2009, Congress fielded a first-time candidate, Lalit Nagar, in Faridabad’s newly-created constituency of Tigaon. According to a report filed in a Chandigarh-based paper, Nagar had “made a name as a realtor in the area". But political circles in Faridabad believe not just did he make his name and fortune in the real estate business, Nagar also earned his ticket through it. Documents available with TOI show Lalit Nagar’s brother, Mahesh Nagar, purchased land on behalf of Robert Vadra, not just in Haryana but also in Rajasthan," The Times of India has said in a report.

“A sale deed dated 3 March, 2008, shows nine acres of land in Hasanpur village in Haryana’s Palwal district was sold by Gurgaon resident H L Pahwa to Robert Vadra for ₹ 36.9 lakh. At the bottom of the deed, Pahwa has signed as the seller. But the buyer’s signature is not Vadra’s, it is Mahesh Nagar’s. The buyer is named as ‘Robert Vadra through Mahesh Nagar’, which shows Vadra has vested authority/power of attorney in Mahesh Nagar. Similarly, a sale deed from Rajasthan’s Bikaner district shows 4.63 acres of land in Basti village in Ganganagar tehsil was sold for ₹ 8.5 lakh in April, 2009, by 42-year-old Sarita Devi Bothra to Real Earth Estate Private Limited, a company based in New Delhi. The company’s director is Robert Vadra. The purchase is done on his behalf by Mahesh Nagar," the report goes on to say.

An feature in Open magazine has questioned Robert Vadra’s “silence" on the allegations being leveled against him and also commented on what it means for the Gandhi family and the Congress party.

“Two years before he lost faith in the ‘Mango people’, Robert Vadra told The Times of India that he had been under party pressure to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Sultanpur, the constituency adjoining his mother-in-law Sonia Gandhi’s Raebareli and brother-in-law Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi. “There was a huge demand for me to stand [from Sultanpur]," he told the paper, “but I was clear that it was not my place. I was being recognised only because of the family." Unknowingly, Vadra had gone to the heart of the matter that is now being contested in the public domain after charges of a nexus between him and DLF have been levelled by the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement reborn as a political party. What Vadra, as Priyanka Gandhi’s husband, acknowledged in 2009 is exactly what the party loyal to the family he has married into has failed to accept today. This is as true of the host of lawyers who think politics in this country is entirely a matter of what is legally tenable, and that issues of propriety or public perception do not count in a democracy," the piece says.

Another report in The Times of India has questioned whether land in Manesar in Haryana was undervalued for Vadra.

“When Congress chief’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s company came to the office of Manesar sub-registrar on September 18 this year to register the sale deed (no. 1435) withDLF Universal of the 3.53-acre land that he had bought in Shikohpur in February 2008, the officer was well aware that the value of this land had shot up by almost eight times from ₹ 7.5 crore to ₹ 58 crore in just four months," the report notes.

“The land was bought by Vadra’s Sky Light Hospitality on February 12, 2008, for ₹ 7.5 crore. Immediately after that, Vadra’s firm applied for change of land use licence (known as LOI/licence in official circle) which he was awarded on March 28, 2008. Within months, Vadra entered into a sale agreement with DLF for ₹ 58 crore for the same land and received the first instalment of ₹ 5 crore on June 3, 2008. Subsequently, he got three more cheques of ₹ 10 crore, ₹ 35 crore and ₹ 8 crore on March 27, 2009, November 7, 2009 and July 25, 2012 respectively. All these payment details, including the cheque numbers, were mentioned in the sale deed which was signed and registered with the Manesar sub-registrar on September 18, 2012. After reading the document, the sub-registrar could have easily detected the fact that the land which was bought on February 12, 2008, for ₹ 7.5 crore was sold to DLF for ₹ 58 crore by June 3, 2008, and the first instalment of the money was also paid to Vadra by then," the report further says.

18 October

An opinion piece in The Pioneer has said that if Vadra is a private citizen, then he and his family should explain their deals and not the Congress party.

“It is strange that senior Congress ministers and party leaders should have rushed head over heels to defend the controversial dealings of Robert Vadra, a private citizen. It shows the party’s sycophantic nature," The Pioneer says.

Meanwhile, a report in Mint has sought to question the Congress’ claim that Vadra is a private citizen.

“The argument may not be a tenable one, say legal and financial experts, citing international law and even a circular issued by the central bank. None of the people wanted to be identified given Vadra’s position," the report says.

“The experts point to India being a full signatory to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering, which clearly defines a “Politically Exposed Person" (PEP) and the set of people who qualify to be PEPs and cannot, therefore, be treated merely as private citizens," the report goes on to say.

A local Jaipur court has taken cognizance of a complaint against Vadra “for his reported comment ‘mango man in banana republic’ on a social networking site", the Press Trust of India reported.

Lawyer A.C. Upadhyay “has sought action against Vadra under sections 121-A (sedition), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 500 and 501 (defamation) of IPC (Indian Penal Code)", the report said.

Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka on Thursday said that anyone having any objection to his recent order cancelling the land deal of Robert Vadra and realty giant DLF could move the high court as per law, the Hindustan Times newspaper said in a report.

“To the question on the letter written by TC Gupta, director, town and country planning department, to Chaudhery terming Khemka’s order as incorrect, he said that the same was ‘red herring’ to divert the real issues," the report said.

Action by civil servants can do much more to check corruption than activists’ movements against it, journalist Sandipan Deb has said in an opinion piece in Mint, while commenting on IAS officer Ashok Khemka’s stand against Vadra’s land deals.

“Corporation Bank chairman and managing director Ajai Kumar on Thursday said no funds by way of loan or overdraft has been given to Robert Vadra, son-in-law of UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi," The Hindu Business Line reported.

Replying to a question as to whether the public sector bank had given over ₹ 7.5 crore to Vadra, who is currently embroiled in a controversy over a real estate deal with housing major DLF Group in Haryana, he reiterated the bank’s position: “We have already denied it. There is nothing new to add. We don’t have any documents whatsoever to comment on this issue."

In an opinion piece, Mint’s editor R. Sukumar has said that Arvind Kejriwal is changing the rules of politics as his strategy is suited to the information age.

“...in some ways, his current role, as a conduit for and amplifier of information on the deals and dealings of ministers and politicians—Kejriwal himself calls them the ruling class—is a continuation of his earlier role as an advocate for and evangelist of the Right to Information legislation, one that brought him fame and a won him a Magsaysay award," the piece said.

“I see Kejriwal as India’s Julian Assange; only unlike Assange’s strong anti-system objectives, his own are somewhere between highlighting the gaps in people managing the current system and presenting himself as an objective. Wikileaks was built around the documents it leaked and Kejriwal has stressed, more than once, that there are a large number of documents that IAC has received (and continues to receive)," the piece goes on to say.

“A 58-crore land deal in Haryana between businessman Robert Vadra and real estate giant DLF was cancelled earlier this week, but the commercial license that was the heart of the deal is still in Mr Vadra’s name, said a senior government official today, emphasizing that this is in keeping with rules," NDTV news channel said in a report.

“The head of Haryana’s Town and Country Planning Department, T.C. Gupta, told NDTV today that the license is still in Mr Vadra’s name, though the land was transferred to DLF last month till Mr Khemka cancelled the transaction on Monday. Mr Gupta said that that because formalities have yet to be completed, the license has not been transferred to DLF yet. He refuted allegations that licensing guidelines had been skewed for Mr Vadra," the report said.

“ IAS officer Ashok Khemka’s decision to take his grievances to the media does not seem to have gone down well with the government," The Times of India said in a report.

“Citing the All India Services (Conduct) Rules 1968, an official said, “The IAS officer has violated the rule by approaching media. The Haryana government is, therefore, well within its right to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him." Rule 7 prohibits any IAS officer from approaching the media in any way “which has the effect of an adverse criticism of any current or recent policy or action of the central government or a state government"," the report said.

IAS officers in Haryana are turning against each other in the wake of the Robert Vadra-DLF deal revelations, CNN-IBN news channel has said in a report.

“Town and Country Planning head T.C. Gupta has defended the deal and said action should be taken against transferred IAS officer Ashok Khemka, the former Director General of Land Consolidation. Gupta has written against Khemka’s observations. Khemka had in his order dated 11 October cancelled the mutation of the sale deed between Vadra’s company Sky Light Hospitality and DLF over a 3.5-acre plot in Gurgaon district. Khemka had cited a violation of the states consolidation act. Gupta now says Khemka had no grounds for objecting, accusing him of ignorance about the transfer of property act. In his letter to the chief secretary of Haryana," the report says.

“Sanskrit poems tell us that mango buds lend sweetness to the cuckoo’s voice. Why is Robert Vadra striking a discordant note?," Shyamal Majumdar asks in a piece in Business Standard.

“Going by his watermelon-sized biceps, which he didn’t mind showing off on his now-deactivated Facebook album, Robert Vadra is quite unlike a majority of the “mango people" who think that accumulation of wealth and midriff bulge have to go together. The rippling muscles that the flamboyant businessman loves to flaunt (for proof, do a search on Google Images) is also a testimony to the fact that he is doing full justice to his daily intake of fresh fruits -- grapevine has it that apple, mango and banana are his favourites, in that order. One only wishes he had done a return favour to the last two by not involving them in his public spat with Arvind Kejriwal and Co. For, one thing is certain after his mindless remarks on Facebook: Vadra is anything but the apple of the aam admi’s eyes after he termed “banana republic" the country his in-laws have been ruling for so long. It’s clear why he is on very slippery grounds," the piece goes on to say.

“When Robert Vadra’s company came to the office of Manesar sub-registrar on 18 September this year to register the sale deed (no. 1435) with DLF Universal of the 3.53-acre land that he had bought in Shikohpur in February 2008, the officer was well aware that the value of this land had shot up by almost eight times from ₹ 7.5 crore to ₹ 58 crore in just four month," The Economic Times newspaper has said in a report.

“The land was bought by Vadra’s Sky Light Hospitalityon 12 February 2008 for ₹ 7.5 crore. Immediately after that Vadra’s firm applied for change of land use licence (known as LOI/licence in official circle) which he was awarded on 28 March 2008. Within months, he entered into a sale agreement with DLF for ₹ 58 crore for the same land and received the first installment of ₹ 5 crore on 3 June 2008. Subsequently, he got three more cheques of ₹ 10 crore, ₹ 35 crore and ₹ 8 crore on 27 March 2009, 7 November 2009 and 25 July 2012 respectively," the report notes.

“Gurgaon district magistrate P. C. Meena on Wednesday claimed the state government did not lose any revenue in the Robert Vadra-DLF land deals. He said the land was registered in the revenue records at much higher prices than the prevailing circle rates in 2008 as well as later in 2012," Hindustan Times said in a report.

“Meena also clarified that assistant consolidation officers in Haryana were empowered to sanction the mutation. Shochand, sarpanch of Shikohpur village, also claimed that the farmers carried no grudge against anyone as they had sold their land to many land bankers from one of whom Robert Vadra must have purchased the 3.5-acre plot just off the National Highway No.8 in 2008," the report further said.

17 October

An opinion piece in Rediff.com asks why “the Nehru Dynasty’s usual Teflon isn’t working for Robert Vadra" or why the “Congress’s code of Omerta" did not apply to Vadra.

“It s interesting that the normal code of the Congress party—absolute fealty to the Nehru dynasty— seems to have fallen by the wayside in the case of poor Robert Vadra. Newspapers are being allowed to question how Robert came by his millions, and the story of his Facebook gaffe re aam aadmi has gone viral. This is startling, because anybody associated with the dynasty normally gets the puff-piece/kid-gloves treatment in the craven English-Language Media," the piece says.

“We have seen this not only in the case of genuine, bona fide relatives of Jawaharlal Nehru but even with peripheral players (especially if they are white)—for instance, Ottavio Quattrocchi: he was allowed to skip town, his assets were unfrozen by the law ministry, and the Indian authorities ‘did not even present proper legal documents’ to extradite him, according to an Argentinian judge. In other words, complete Omerta, the code of silence as used by the mafia," the piece further says.

“Why? Enquiring minds want to know. I have no idea, but I have two conjectures: one is that Vadra is being sacrificed so that his relatively small scam (only 500 crore. Yes, only!) can be used to divert attention away from the mega-scams (Coalgate, Thorium, Adarsh, CWG, 2G, Air India handicapgate, and so on, ad nauseam). And it is working: all these others have disappeared from the front pages. The second conjecture is more complex: that Vadra is seen as a threat to the dynasty scion du jour. There is a long history of those in that unhappy position suddenly losing their jobs (think Sitaram Kesri and the Toilet Revolution), or finding themselves very dead. It’s clearly not good for your health to be perceived as a possible challenger, however remote," the piece goes on to say.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh has said that former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval “is behind" the attack on Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and Robert Vadra, The Indian Express has said in a report.

“He hit out at the BJP and Delhi-based Vivekanand International Foundation being run by a clutch of former intelligence officials and RSS swayamsevaks for planning the controversy. The Congress leader named former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval, who is the director of the Foundation, RSS swayamsevak S. Gurumurthy and Subramanian Swamy for “plotting totally baseless and concocted stories" against the Nehru-Gandhi family in the social media. He accused some people in the media for “taking it upon themselves to promote Arvind Kejriwal"," the report said.

In an opinion piece in Mint, media critic Sevanti Ninan has said that Kejriwal now has to move beyond personalities.

“If Arvind Kejriwal’s disclosures got mileage because they had a range of media as amplifier, the man and his team did the media a return favour, forcing the fourth estate to rediscover its investigative instincts by throwing them periodic bones that they could hardly ignore," Ninan said.

“Even the initially unwilling, including the Hindustan Times and The Indian Express, had to react with more details of the controversy emerging. These papers have had to take note of the Ashok Khemka transfer, disclosed on 16 October by The Hindu. On Wednesday, Hindustan Times came up with the Haryana chief minister’s hand in the land use change. We now have to see where that will lead us," the piece further said.

In another opinion piece, Mint has said that Kejriwal’s ‘name and shame’ politics will need follow-up and that his “half-way activism" is not enough.

“Even as the anti-corruption activists rejoice in uncovering newer scams, the law of unintended consequences kicks in and the Commonwealth Games scam, the 2G scam and the coal block allocation scam are displaced by sensational new disclosures. If any real change has to come out of any or all of these busts, that sequence needs to be interrupted. Somewhere in between, each of these scams need to be investigated thoroughly and meticulously and responsibility assigned," the piece said.

After Robert Vadra, Rahul Gandhi too could come under some media scrutiny in relation to his financial deals.

“Former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala on Wednesday accused Rahul Gandhi of tax evasion in land purchase in a village in Palwal district," Firstpost.com said in a story.

“Rahul Gandhi purchased a piece of land measuring around 6.5 acre in Hasanpur village in Palwal district of Haryana in March 2008. He resorted to tax evasion in it. Rahul bought this land at the rate of ₹ 1.5 lakh per acre as mentioned in the land registration deed even as its valuation by the government at that time was ₹ 8 lakh per acre," Chautala told a press conference, according to the report.

“He said the government value of the land given to Gandhi at the rate of ₹ 1.5 lakh per acre was ₹ 8 lakh per acre while its market value was much more at ₹ 35 lakh per acre. In a point by point rebuttal, Gandhi’s office said in Delhi that he had purchased 51 Kanal 13 Marla ( 6.456 acres) of Sailab Land in Hassanpur Village, Tehsil Hodal, District Palwal in Haryana," the report further said.

“Arvind Kejriwal’s charges against Robert Vadra have earned him praise from Sangh Parivar’s mouthpiece Organiser for breaking the “unwritten code of silence" by striking at the “raw nerve" in the Congress," The Indian Express said in a report.

“The latest issue of Organiser carries a cover story providing details of Kejriwal’s charges. “Vadra’s wealth, Congress in turmoil: Is Sonia family getting its just desserts, finally?" wonders a headline. Alleging that the deals between Vadra and real estate firms were “illegal transactions and malafide nexus" the articles seek to highlight that an ordinary citizen could not have availed similar deals," the report goes on to say.

After targeting Vadra, law minister Salman Khurshid and BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Kejriwal could target more political heavyweights in the coming days, Mint said.

“Thanks to blanket coverage by television channels – the 5.00 pm press conference at New Delhi’s Constitution Club may have well been among the most watched on Indian TV—everyone knows what Kejriwal & Co don’t stand for, although not everyone gets the real message, said an analyst," Mint said.

The Hindu newspaper has said that new documents “show clear and undeniable links between the sudden transfer of senior IAS official Ashok Khemka and his initiation of a probe specifically related to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and his companies, contrary to the Haryana government’s attempts to establish that the two events were unrelated."

“... the internal documents confirm that Khemka’s first meeting on subject, which led eventually to the now highly controversial order cancelling the mutation of a key land transfer from Vadra to the real estate giant, DLF, was held on 8 October itself, where the sale deed of village Shikohpur and the mutation papers were called for and examined in the presence of district officials," the report said.

“The reference to the 8 October meeting with other officials is made in passing in an internal memo signed by Ashok Khemka on 15 October which set out in brief the background to the order cancelling mutation he issued the same day," the report further said.

An indirect official inquiry has been instituted for the first time into Robert Vadra’s land deals in Haryana following an allegation by an IAS officer that he was shunted out for ordering a probe, news website Newsbullet.in reports.

“The Congress-ruled Haryana government today announced a three-member inquiry committee, headed by the additional chief secretary. The panel was not constituted specifically to inquire into Vadra’s deals but they will be covered since it will look into the probe ordered by Ashok Khemka, the IAS officer, as well his statements to the media. The panel has been asked to file its report within a month," the report said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra is now in a fix to explain the overdraft in his balance sheet, CNN-IBN news channel said in a report.

“Sources close to Vadra now say no loan was taken from the Corporation Bank, so there was no question of any overdraft. Sources add it is a standard practice to issue cheques of higher values than what’s there in an account, if there is possibility of that amount coming into the account at a later stage," the report said.

“The big question now is that if Vadra’s company Sky Light hospitality wasn’t taking or repaying loan to Corporation Bank, what was the need to issue a cheque to a third party for 7.94 crore? Also, how did Vadra pay this sum of ₹ 7.94 crore? Did the party to whom he paid the cheque of ₹ 7.94 crore really encash the cheque? Sky Light will also have to answer as to how it showed an overdraft of ₹ 7.94 crore from Corporation Bank in the balance sheet," the report further added.

“It was Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who had cleared the change of land use allowing a company, owned by Robert Vadra, to begin commercial activity barely a month after it purchased farmland in Gurgaon in 2008," a report in the Hindustan Times newspaper has said.

“The 3.5 acres of land has triggered the storm following the cancellation of the deal between Vadra and real estate major DLF on Monday by an IAS officer in the state land registration department," the report noted.

“Official documents, possessed by HT, show that Vadra’s company, Sky Light Hospitality, purchased the land at Shikohpur village in Gurgaon for Rs. 7.5 crore on 12 February 2008 and sought permission to develop a commercial colony on the land. And the Hooda government promptly granted the permission on March 21, 2008. Surprisingly, within three months of getting the permission, Sky Light Hospitality signed a deal to sell the same plot for Rs. 58 crore to DLF —nearly eight times the price at which it had purchased the land," the report further said.

16 October

Business Standard has said that Ashok Khemka’s order cancelling DLF’s land mutation in Haryana may not be legally tenable.

“The cancellation might not hold good as Khemka was already sent a transfer order before that, pointed out an official. Haryana chief secretary Pradeep Kumar Chaudhary defended Khemka’s transfer as a decision taken by the Haryana government in compliance with a Punjab and Haryana high court order dated 1 October. According to a Haryana government spokesperson, Khemka wanted to be relieved from the post of special collector. Since the court wanted the government to take a quick decision on filling the special collector’s position, usually held jointly by the land consolidation director general, Khemka was transferred, the state government said.Officials hinted Khemka might not have been the competent authority to cancel a land mutation suo motu," the report noted.

Rajasthan Congress legislators led by parliamentary secretary Rajendra Singh Bidhuri have demanded removal of cabinet minister Bharat Singh, accusing him of nursing anti-Gandhi family sentiments and challenging the party high command’s decisions, The Times of India has said in a report.

“The party’s 10 legislators have written a letter to Sonia, targeting Singh for his alleged remarks made at the Congress legislative party (CLP) meeting last week. The letter points out that minister Singh allegedly objected to the suggestion that the Congress legislators ought to defend Sonia’s son-in-law Robert Vadra should the opposition BJP target him in the state assembly. It is alleged that Singh objected to the suggestion saying it was Sonia family’s personal matter and the party should not be involved in it," the report said.

“Alleging that Robert Vadra used his ‘connections’ with the Gandhi family to accumulate wealth and commit other improprieties, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday questioned Arvind Kejriwal for restricting his expose to Vadra only and not attacking the Congress president on the issue," the Indian Express newspaper said in a report.

“Swamy also took to task Kejriwal for restricting his expose only against Vadra to score points through media and not going to the court to nail the Congress president’s son-in-law if at all he wanted to root out corruption from the political system," the report added.

“Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who was transferred by the Haryana government after he ordered an investigation into the land deals between Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and realty major DLF, on Tuesday said that he suspected that the Punjab and Haryana high court order was used as a pretext to transfer him out," CNN-IBN news channel said.

“Earlier, the Haryana government was forced to order an investigation into the Vadra-DLF Manesar land deal worth ₹ 58 crore after Khemka cancelled the land mutation saying it violated the consolidation act of the states. However, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government questioned Khemka’s decision to scrap the deal without giving the affected parties a chance to give their version," the report further added.

Firstpost.com has asked in an opinion piece if ‘Vadragate’ is turning out to be Sonia Gandhi’s ‘Bofors.’

“The impact of this (Bofors) on the Congress party was huge. It lost the 1989 election to an alliance of Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Rajiv Gandhi had to become the leader of the opposition. A party which had more than three-fourths of the seats in the Lok Sabha was thrown out of power," the piece notes.

“It is often said that ‘perception is reality’. Rajiv Gandhi losing the 1989 Lok Sabha election because people ‘thought’ he was involved in the Bofors scandal and may have received a part of the kickbacks. And this perception was formed after his government stonewalled all attempts at bringing the guilty to book. A similar situation seems to be now brewing up in the Robert Vadra-DLF case. A string of lawyer ministers from the Congress have jumped into the ring in order to defend Robert Vadra and would like the world at large to believe that there is no truth in accusations being hurled at Vadra (and indirectly Sonia Gandhi) by Arvind Kejriwal and his associates," the piece goes on to say.

“Senior Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who is in the news following controversy over land deals involving Robert Vadra, is receiving threat calls from unknown people," Firstpost.com says in another report.

“The callers asked him to desist or else he would be eliminated. He further told me that those threatening him also talked about having given a ‘supari’ to eliminate him," the report cited lawyer Anupam Gupta as saying.

DLF paid almost two times the market price for a plot of land it bought from Robert Vadra’s company, Skylight Hospitality, in Gurgaon in 2008-09, claim real estate analysts and property brokers, The Economic Times newspaper has said.

“In a press release issued by DLF on Saturday, the company had said it bought a 3.5-acre plot at village Sikohpur, Gurgaon district at FSI (floor sale index) cost of ₹ 2,800 per sq ft. It also claimed that the price of this property has significantly appreciated, benefitting both the company and its shareholders. But analysts, property brokers and landowners say land in that area in 2008-09 did not cost more than ₹ 1,500 per sq ft. They say that the current price of commercial FSI in the area is ₹ 2,500 per sq ft, while land touching the highway costs ₹ 3,000 per sq ft," the report said.

Meanwhile, The Hindu newspaper has said that the transferred officer, Ashok Khemka, has protested his eviction from the post of Haryana’s Director-General of Land Consolidation and Land Records-cum-Inspector-General of Registration in writing, alleging mala fide.

“Though he had no option but to accept the marching orders, Mr. Khemka issued an order on his last day in office on October 15 cancelling the mutation of a 3.531-acre plot of land in Manesar-Shikohpur that Mr. Vadra had sold to DLF for Rs. 58 crore," the report notes.

“Three days earlier, pursuant to the probe he had already initiated, Mr. Khemka issued a letter formally ordering an inquiry across four districts into the “alleged under-valuation of some properties registered by Shri Robert Vadra or his companies as vendor or vendee." His letter took note of IAC’s allegations and reports in the media. Based on the preliminary details uncovered by the inquiry in the case of at least one of those properties, Mr. Khemka cancelled the mutation of the 3.531- acre plot that Mr. Vadra’s company, M/s Sky Light Hospitality, had sold to DLF Universal Ltd on September 18, 2012. He did so on the grounds that the mutation violated the States Consolidation Act and was done not by a revenue officer but by the Assistant Consolidation Officer of Gurgaon who was not authorised to do so. (EA4/2012/4620-4621 dated 15 October, 2012)," the report notes.

A report in Business Standard has detailed how a DLF controlled entity linked to Vadra underwent several rounds of restructuring, which the report calls “curious."

“First, the partner — a private company — and the partnership shared the name. Then, the partner gave up its name. After this, the partnership gave up its structure and changed into a limited company and took the name vacated by the partner. This head-spinning restructuring was part of realty major DLF’s business dealings with Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi," the report says.

“Saket Courtyard Hospitality, the joint venture (JV) between Robert Vadra’s Sky Light Hospitality and the DLF group, has taken three different avatars in the past three years. According to the annual report for the year 2010-11, there were two entities by the same name. The first was Saket Courtyard Hospitality Pvt Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of DLF. (The 2009 annual report says this company was originally known as DLF Saket Hotels.) The second entity was Saket Courtyard Hospitality, a partnership firm," it goes on to say.

Another Business Standard story questions whether a Corporation Bank cheque that Vadra’s company Sky Light issued, was actually ever presented.

“What stops you from writing a cheque for ₹ 7.94 crore, if you are sure the payee won’t present it for payment? Nothing, really, not even the fact that your bank account has a balance of ₹ 1 lakh or less. It is this confidence that seemed to have helped the Robert Vadra-promoted Sky Light Hospitality to write one or more cheques amounting to ₹ 7.94 crore and account that as “book overdraft" in its balance sheet for the year ended March 31, 2008. A book overdraft is not an overdraft at a bank but an excess of outstanding cheques on a company’s books over its reported bank balance," the report says.

“However, it is not clear who sold the land to Sky Light. It is also not clear if the licences were granted after Sky Light took possession of the land. But if the licences were received earlier, that would raise a question over why the seller sold the land at the price he did. If that price was right then why would DLF pay four times that sum a few months down the line? Vadra did not respond to queries in this regard emailed to his private secretary," the report goes on to say.

“Nearly three years after realty major DLF cited industry practice to give UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra a R50 crore interest-free advance for a 3.5 acre plot in Manesar in Haryana, the company has finally got unencumbered possession of the land," the Financial Express newspaper said in a report.

“The land was ‘conveyanced’ in the name of the real estate firm last month, and DLF has now paid Vadra the balance R8 crore," the report said.

“While DLF has not been able to cite other instances of where interest-free advances have been given, and over such long periods of time, a perusal of the books of various Vadra firms shows he used the advance to make other investments, including in several DLF properties. Interestingly, DLF officials who first said the company had got the plot in 2008-09, the year in which it gave Vadra the advance, now argue the firm saved money by not getting the property from Vadra earlier," the report added.

“ A senior IAS officer in Haryana government’s Land Registration Department was transferred for reportedly cancelling the mutation of a 3.531 acre plot of land in Manesar-Shikohpur that Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra sold to DLF for ₹ 58 crore in 2009," news channel CNN-IBN reported.

“Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka was transferred as the DG Haryana Seed Development Corporation, three days after he ordered a probe into the land deals between Vadra and DLF on 8 October. Before leaving office, on October 15, Khemka cancelled the mutation of the land, citing irregularities in the transfer of land from Vadra’s Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited to the real estate giant," the news report said.

15 October

In an opinion piece Firstpost.com has said that the Congress party cannot let law minister Salman Khurshid resign because doing that would shift the spotlight back on Robert Vadra.

“The party fears that if Khurshid is made to resign now, it would unwittingly be giving credit to Arvind Kejriwal and a media house against whom Khurshid has filed a ₹ 100 crore defamation suit. Moreover, if the Khurshid case moves off prime time, the focus would return to the Robert Vadra issue and open the flood gates to similar demands against other ministers," the piece notes.

“Even as holes were being punched in Khurshid’s defence from various quarters, the Congress is under pressure on all fronts. Senior leaders may publicly be putting up a brave front, but internally, the “expose" comes at a time when the results of two Lok Sabha bypolls have already rattled the Congress. In the Jangipur parliamentary seat in West Bengal, President Pranab Mukherjee‘s son Abhijit barely scraped through with a narrow victory margin of 2,536 votes, and in the Tehri seat in Uttarakhand, chief minister Vijay Bahuguna’s son lost to the BJP," the piece goes on to say.

Rediff.com has tried to analyse how the Vadra episode is playing out on social networking site Twitter.

“No sooner than budding politico Arvind Kejriwal break the unspoken consensus among mainstream political parties and charged Robert Vadra with a get-rich-quick scheme using realty giant DLF, Twitter has been abuzz with savage humour on the country’s first son-in-law," the piece said, as it went on to detail some of the more interesting tweets.

An editorial in the India Today magazine has commented on Vadra’s sense of humour and what the controversy means for the Gandhi family.

“The seasoned wit and raconteur Robert Vadra believes that Indians do not have a sense of humour. That may or may not be true, but it is distinctly better than having no sense at all," it says.

“Humour is complicated. One man’s wit is so easily another’s insult. Folklore, and general conversation, indicate that Indians are pretty good at both murky ethnic jokes as well as the noble habit of laughing at the powerful. How would you rate this SMS that raced around after details about Vadra’s triumphant rise as the most famous real estate dealer in Indian history went public? Rahul Gandhi despairingly told his Mummy, ‘First CWG, then 2G, then Coal-G. And now it’s Jijaji.’ Not bad. That Jijaji has just the nice twang that serves so well in north Indian chai shop chat," the piece goes on to say.

“This is the first time since Bofors in the 1980s when the Gandhi family is being charged with corruption, and mud is turning into glue. The Commonwealth scandal involved Congress leaders, but not at the high rungs; during telecom, Congress managed to distance itself and direct blame towards an ally, DMK. Coalgate was harder but the responsibility went to the government and the Prime Minister. Robert Vadra is family. The Vadra crisis has also damaged the Congress effort to shift the debate from corruption to economic reforms. The principal attention is back on sleaze," the piece further notes.

Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, had bought as many as 41 premium apartments from DLF Ltd, but subsequently sold most of them at a profit, The Economic Times said in a report.

“All the apartments were acquired by companies promoted by him, including Sky Light Hospitality—which had dealings with DLF—by paying a minimum booking amount, with the exception of a luxury pad in the picturesque Aralias, for which he paid the entire sum of ₹ 11.9 crore upfront," the report added.

“Most of these apartments were bought for the purpose of trading as Vadra sold around 38 of these 41 apartments subsequently, said a DLF executive. A DLF spokesman confirmed Vadra had bought these apartments in the three projects. He also said that the client had later paid around ₹ 7 crore as delayed payment charges," the report went on to say.

DLF is not the only real estate company that lends to partners and loans, and advances account for as much as a fourth of India’s top real estate majors, Business Standard has said in a report.

In 2011-12, loans and advances accounted for nearly a quarter of the consolidated assets of India’s top real estate companies. DLF is, in fact, better placed than many of its peers, as loans and advances accounted for 18% of its consolidated assets during the last fiscal year, against Unitech Ltd’s 51%, Sobha Developers Ltd’s 47%, Godrej Properties Ltd’s 32% and Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd’s 28 per cent," the report says.

“The total outstanding loans and advances of India’s top 12 listed real estate companies were around ₹ 30,000 crore at the end of FY12, a threefold jump from ₹ 10,600 crore at the end of FY07. During the same period, DLF’s loans and advances doubled to around ₹ 10,000 crore from ₹ 5,233 crore at the end of FY07," the report adds.

14 October

Journalist Seema Mustafa, in an opinion piece in DNA newspaper has commented on how the Vadra episode could signal the “fall of the first family".

“Robert Vadra is an important man. He is the son-in-law of the Congress party’s first, all powerful Nehru-Gandhi family. He walks with full security cover, denied even to persons on the death list of terror groups like General Brar who was recently attacked in London where he was travelling in a bus without even one guard behind him. Vadra has full clearance, denied to Prime Minister and ministers, to return from foreign travels without security or custom clearance. And till recently, he has enjoyed full freedom to make money and more money with the assurance that if questions are asked, the entire Congress party and the government will come out batting for him," she says.

“There is that old tale where dust turns into gold with a touch. Well King Midas did transfer some of this to the Nehru-Gandhi family in the first term of their government, but more recently the reverse holds true — gold is turning into dust with their one touch. Rae Bareilly and Amethi, the long held captive constituencies for the first family, seem to be revolting and murmurs suggest a possible rout for the Congress in the next general elections. Priyanka has not been able to still the whispers, and seems to have lost much of the sheen she held for the rural electorate here. Rahul Gandhi is just not able to launch himself. The Uttar Pradesh fiasco sent him indoors, and he emerged recently to woo Kashmir, but it all went awry, with students raising black flags outside the guarded hall, and sarpanches walking out of a meeting with him. Sonia Gandhi rushed to Haryana to atone for the Congress state government’s indifference to the spate of crimes against women. But instead of earning brownie points, she found herself in the midst of a controversy with another victim of heinous rape wondering why she had been ignored by the Congress president. Was it because she had been raped by Jats, and not by Dalits like the other girl, and the Congress did not want to alienate this vote bank, she asked rather pertinently. The stars are certainly not shining for the Nehru-Gandhi family, with their personal fortunes waning with the Congress party. Hard realisation that a sound byte no longer works, and a wave here and a smile there can no longer convince an electorate reeling under corruption, inflation, price rise and insecuritym," she goes on to add.

“DLF, the country’s biggest property developer, was likely to suffer no material impact from accusations by Arvind Kejriwal and his India Against Corruption (IAC) of improper dealings, and the issue had been largely priced in to the stock, said UBS, the financial services group," a Reuters report has said.

“UBS added the allegations against DLF would be difficult to investigate given the issues were “politically motivated" and had happened three to four years ago. The linkage of politicians with real estate developers had been a common concern in the sector, it added," the report added.

In an opinion piece The Economic Times has said that it would tough for the Congress party to distance itself from the Vadra controversy considering how its ministers had gone all out to defend him.

“History has little comfort to offer the Congress as it hunkers down to assess the political damage from the Robert Vadra story. Past scandals involving members of the first family have led to devastating electoral losses and a split in the ranks. There’s nothing to suggest that things will be different this time, despite loud protestations that Vadra is a private citizen," the piece says.

“It’s too late now for the Congress to distance itself. By fanning out its ministers across television channels to defend him, the party ended up owning Vadra. Emotional statements like law minister Salman Khurshid’s merely confirmed the image. Khurshid swore to lay down his life for the family. When it realised the political implications of this high-pitched defence, the Congress quickly withdrew the ministers. But the damage was done. In the public mind, the equation was set: Vadra = Gandhi family = Congress," the piece adds.

“The campaign against Khurshid builds on and provides momentum to Team Kejriwal’s enormously successful expose of Sonia Gandhi‘s son-in-law Robert Vadra‘s real estate dealings with DLF. Although on that occasion too, the core allegation had been in the public domain for more than a year, Kejriwal added layers of additional information to it, and elevated the pitch, compelling ministers and other assorted Sonia Gandhi loyalists to come out swinging in defence of Vadra – thereby showing up the hollowness of their own claim that Vadra was a private individual," Firstpost.com said in another piece.

“By placing Vadra’s dealings with DLF – which reek of influence-peddling with benefits accruing to both Vadra and DLF – in the public domain once again, Kejriwal has also opened up further cracks in the narrative put out by DLF and the Union ministers who have been chirping on behalf of Vadra," the piece goes on to say.

In another piece, The Economic Times has commented on how the real estate sector in India has become synonymous with bribes and black money.

“Rarely does Whatever the Odds, the autobiography of K.P. Singh, the patriarch of real estate powerhouse DLF, break this pattern. Nearly every account that emerges from the book, which chronicles the explosive growth of a fledgling property player into India’s biggest real estate company, is out of the ordinary. Singh writes about his perseverance despite running foul of a powerful politician, his vision to transform Gurgaon into a “boom city", his “doing business the hard way" in a land of archaic laws and yes, how he “cheated death" on five occasions, no less. There are also many glowing references to Singh’s business practice," the piece notes.

In a front page story, Business Standard has detailed how, despite fewer Gurgaon based projects in hand, DLF is still the dominant real estate player in the region.

“Between 1981 and 1990, DLF got 57 of the 101 realty project licences awarded in Gurgaon — about 56% of the total. In the same period, Ansal Properties, another prime player in this market, held 32 project licences in Gurgaon. Switch to 2012, and things are quite different. DLF was issued just eight of the 73 licences for Gurgaon in 2012. In 2011, too, the number was low for the country’s largest realty player — it was issued six licences by Town and Country Planning, Haryana, of the total of 84 for Gurgaon. Another prominent player in Gurgaon, Unitech, was issued four licences from 1980-90, and it got one in 2012 and two in 2011 in the region, according to data available with analysts," the report says.

“While the numbers point at DLF’s near-monopoly getting diluted with the emergence of new developers such as Bestech, SRS, Godrej, Tata Housing, Sobha Developers and M3M in the region, it’s only partially the case. DLF still holds the first-mover advantage in the region, say analysts, while pointing at its significant land bank. It may not have been launching many projects lately, but it has ‘latent capacity’, observers say," the report goes on to say.

Robert Vadra is a director in as many as 12 companies, six of which were started this year, The Times of India has said.

“There is still no clarity if Corporation Bank ever extended an over-draft facility to a company controlled by Robert Vadra. However, it is confirmed that the Mangalore-based nationalised bank was among the favourite financial institutions of the controversial son-in-law of the Congress’s first family," the report has said.

“Vadra is a director or an additional director in 12 companies, according to the ministry of corporate affairs. Of them, six firms were incorporated only this year, so they haven’t yet filed their first balance sheets along with reports from the directors, auditors, etc., with the registrar of company affairs. Of the other six firms, which have been in existence for longer period, their preferred banks were Corporation Bank and Standard Chartered," the report goes on to say.

“Breaking his silence on the allegations against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, chief minister Narendra Modi on Saturday taunted the party saying while the entire Cabinet rushed to defend the “jamai raja", no one came to the rescue of Porbandar MP who was caught on camera brandishing a gun at a toll plaza," The Indian Express said in a report.

Meanwhile, media-watch website The Hoot has said in a commentary that the media has treated the Vadra issue with “kid gloves."

“Two axioms were tested over the last seven or eight days. One, everybody is fair game for the media barring the Nehru-Gandhis. And two, increasingly media outlets leave the investigation of alleged wrongdoing to whistleblowers. They are content to be platforms on which charges are traded or rebutted, or eloquent wrap-up story writers. On television they thunder and badger panellists, getting their ammunition from the whistleblowers or the follow up stories in newspapers and websites. That is pretty much what Arnab Goswami and Karan Thapar among others did," the piece said.

“The advent of whistleblowers has seen journalists step back from what used to be a journalistic responsibility in another age, to becoming platforms where the attacking and the attacked trade charges. Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and company targeted Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra at a press conference on 5 October, making revelations about what looked like a sweetheart deal between him and the real estate giant Delhi Land and Finance. As the coverage unfolded it became clear that this was no ordinary story—it had tossed a direct challenge to an estate which often has trouble subjecting the Congress party’s first family to the same scrutiny that it subjects others in politics. Over the past week media outlets fell into two categories: those who thought the accusations levelled against Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law deserved further investigation, and those who were content to simply report what was coming out. And not even particularly prominently," it noted.

13 October 2012

In a cover story, Open magazine has traced the history of the Vadra family and how they had allegedly tried to misuse their position after Robert’s marriage to Priyanka Gandhi.

“At the time of his marriage, Vadra was 28 and ran a costume jewellery export firm called Artex in Delhi, having broken away from his father Rajindra V