Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, has expressed hope that the investigation by a one-man inquiry commission into land deals in Haryana allegedly favouring him will not be driven by “political vendetta”.
A day after the Haryana government announced the setting up of the commission, Mr. Vadra issued a statement on social media, corroborated by his office, on Friday that he and his associates had nothing to hide. “An inquiry has been ordered by the government of Haryana. Let us await its outcome … sincerely hope that an inquiry will not be used for political vendetta,” Mr. Vadra said in the statement.
The Congress chose to link the setting up of the commission with the cancellation of the Amethi food park project, saying both smacked of the politics of vendetta. “We hope the Haryana government is not doing it as vendetta as in case of the food park,” Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said.
The government was quick to reject the vendetta charge. “This much I can assure the countrymen that as far as our government is concerned, we do not do vendetta politics. We want to take everybody along and want to ensure everyone’s development,” Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.
The Haryana government formed a commission to investigate the grant of licences to select companies, including Mr. Vadra’s, for developing commercial colonies in Sector 83 of Gurgaon.
Mr. Ajoy Kumar said Sector 83 was spread over 76,000 acres, whereas Mr. Vadra’s land measured just 2.7 acres. “It is surprising the government of Haryana found only this bit fit to investigate,” he said.
The State government appointed the former Delhi High Court judge S.N. Dhingra to investigate the grant of licences for developing commercial colonies by the Department of Town and Country Planning.
