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Robert Vadra loses cool over question on land deal

Robert Vadra.

I am amazed by the Media attention given to a minor incident involving Robert Vadhra. Why a private Citizen being unnecessarily hounded? — digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) November 2, 2014

If he has violated any Law Prosecute him. If has ill gotten wealth confiscate it, but this unnecessary media attention is not justified. — digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) November 2, 2014

If he has violated any Law Prosecute him. If has ill gotten wealth confiscate it, but this unnecessary media attention is not justified. — digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) November 2, 2014

From left: Rahul Gandhi, Robert Vadra, Priyanka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

NEW DELHI: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi met her son-in-law Robert Vadra on Sunday, a day after he heaped fresh embarrassment on the party by seeking to intimidate a reporter who questioned him on his land deals. The Congress rushed to Vadra’s defence even as BJP and Aam Aadmi Party criticized him for his aggressive behaviour.Sonia visited her daughter Priyanka’s Lodhi Estate residence and spent close to half-an-hour there while the Congress backed Vadra, saying “repeated hounding” of an individual on an issue rejected by courts was not appropriate and advised the media to avoid the “unpleasantness” of shooting questions at private functions.Congress also highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brushes with the media when he was Gujarat chief minister while alleging that the entire episode was being propagated as a “political agenda for obvious reasons” which could not be considered either fair or proper.“Indian Constitution and our established ethos guarantee right of privacy, personal space and liberty to all individuals, more so, when a person is neither in public life nor holds any public office. Unpleasantness of repeatedly asking questions at private functions, like what happened with Robert Vadra yesterday, must be avoided at all times,” AICC spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said.Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh tweeted, “Why is a private citizen being unnecessarily hounded? If he has violated any law, prosecute him. If he has ill gotten wealth, confiscate it, but this unnecessary media attention is not justified.”Rubbishing the defence, BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said Vadra was not a private citizen. “Vadra is not a private person. If he had been a private person, then he would not have got the privileges in Haryana, neither he would have got privileges at airports,” he said.BJP spokesman Sambit Patra said it was Vadra's “sheer frustration” that caused this inappropriate behaviour. “Vadra was the one who had called India a banana republic and we Indians as mango people but it is time that we make him realize that India is no more a banana republic which was ruled by the first family of the Congress,” Patra said.AAP leader Yogendra Yadav was quoted by an agency as saying that Vadra's snapping at the reporter showed the Gandhi family's “arrogance was intact” and “they needed to be taught more lessons”.On Saturday, Vadra lost his cool and pushed aside a reporter’s microphone at a function to inaugurate an exhibition on gym equipment when he was quizzed about his controversial land deals. He also directed Delhi Police personnel guarding him to seize the reporter's camera and delete the visuals.While the cops could not delete the contents, the reporter insisted on return of his camera and got it back. The reporter was at the function on the invitation of the organizers and Vadra had even answered his first question related to gym equipment before blowing his top.Backing Vadra, Congress spokesman Surjewala said while rejecting a PIL of a “BJP sympathizer” against Vadra, the Supreme Court had said, “We won't allow you to destroy someone's reputation. Merely because someone is related to a politician, you cannot call him a sinner.”He added, “I want to remind leaders of BJP and friends of the media as to how none less than the current prime minister (the then chief minister) Narendra Modi had removed the mike and walked out of a pre-fixed interview with a leading journalist who questioned him about Gujarat riots.”The Comptroller and Auditor General has faulted Vadra over his land deals in Haryana, saying he reaped nearly Rs 44 crore in windfall gains because an indulgent Congress government allowed him to do so in breach of law, and did not insist on recovering Rs 41.51 crore of the profit he made by quickly selling the land to DLF Universal.