Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is contemplating even going to jail over The National Herald controversy. An audacious gamble that may either help him gain public sympathy or trigger criticism, Mr. Gandhi is willing to face the worst.
Sources close to Mr. Gandhi told The Hindu that on Wednesday, a day after returning from Tamil Nadu, he held a meeting with his “core” group in which he asked his lawyer and party member Abhishek Manu Singhvi to prepare two bail bonds — one for his mother, Sonia Gandhi, and another for Motilal Vora, the party treasurer, both of whom, along with Mr. Gandhi, stand accused in the case. When Mr. Singhvi asked him whether he would like a bail bond for himself, Mr. Gandhi simply refused.
Sources said that Mr. Gandhi told Mr. Singhvi, “let’s be bold about this and highlight the vindictiveness of the government.”
Later, after Parliament was adjourned, Mr. Gandhi directed Mr. Singhvi and senior leader Kapil Sibal, who was also present in the first meeting, to explain the case to the Congress MPs, in what they called a “briefing session.”
During the briefing, the common question was — why didn’t the Gandhis move the Supreme Court? Mr. Sibal said that it was Rahul Gandhi who wanted to keep the matter in the lower court. A senior Congress leader told The Hindu the party had asked all the district presidents to assemble 2000 people for a ‘jail bharo’ protest on December 19, when the case will be heard in a Delhi court.
