Loyalty above duty – Ministers should not defend a deal in advance of facts

The political wisdom of the Congress closing ranks behind its president’s son-in-law is extremely questionable. The fact that even Karnataka Governor H. R. Bhardwaj was unable to maintain his office’s neutrality sufficiently to keep silent on the subject, saying instead that allegations against the Gandhi family always “fall like nine-pins”, is an indication of the degree to which the party’s members feel their loyalty requires a stout defence of Mr. Vadra, whatever the political cost. But it is a political party’s right to be bad at politics, if it so wishes. However, those who hold ministerial portfolios relevant to possible investigations into the association between Mr. Vadra and DLF should be a little more restrained in their comments on this issue. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who supervises the income tax office among other relevant departments, declared that a probe was impossible without “specific allegations or quid pro quo”. This is certainly correct as a principle. But it is far from clear that specific allegations will not emerge. Indeed, Arvind Kejriwal believes he has already made specific allegations — that the Haryana government provided favourable treatment to DLF in return for Mr. Vadra receiving benefits from that company.