Gandhi charges: Narendra Modi's 'vendetta' against India's opposition

The leader of India's opposition party and great-grandson of its first prime minister has been charged with money laundering, in what his allies claim is part of a "vendetta" by Narendra Modi.

India's financial crime-fighting agency charged Rahul Gandhi, his mother Sonia and other members of the Congress party last week, accusing the family of forming a shell company to acquire assets of the National Herald newspaper illegally. The Nehru-Gandhi family (known as the Gandhis, but no relation to Mahatma Gandhi) have previously denied wrongdoing in the long-running case, although haven't commented on the charges.

But Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh described the allegations as "politics of vendetta and intimidation, external" by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the prime minister.

Who are the Nehru-Gandhi family?

The Gandhis are the "first family of Indian politics", said Al Jazeera. They have ruled for almost half the years since India's independence in 1947. Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's inaugural and longest-serving prime minister, was followed by his daughter Indira, and later his grandson Rajiv. And their party, the Congress, is "synonymous" with the family. It governed India almost continuously until 2014, when Modi's BJP swept to power in a landslide.

But for Modi and his allies, the Gandhi dynasty is still "an object of intense loathing that manifests itself in visceral outbursts", said The Times. Modi "routinely singles the family out for behaving as though they were 'born' to rule India". Sonia "tends to be spared the worst epithets", but her son Rahul has been called "everything from an entitled 'prince' to having only one talent: the Gandhi name".

What is the case?

India's Enforcement Directorate, the agency that investigates financial crimes, began looking into the case in 2021 after a complaint filed by a member of the BJP.

Subramanian Swamy claimed that in 2010 the Gandhis used Congress party funds to take over Associated Journals Limited, which used to publish the National Herald – one of India's oldest newspapers, started by Jawaharlal Nehru. The paper ceased publication in 2008 after long-standing financial troubles, but was relaunched as a digital news outlet in 2016.

Associated Journals cleared its arrears by "swapping its debt for equity and assigning the shares to a newly created company", the Young Indian, said the BBC. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are two of the company's directors; they each own 38%, with the remaining 24% owned by Congress leaders. The couple were questioned by the enforcement agency in 2022 as part of a probe into the case.

The allegation is that through the purchase of Associated Journals, the Gandhis illegally assumed control of its valuable real estate assets across several Indian cities, worth $300 million.

A hearing is scheduled for 25 April.

What is the defence?

The Congress "maintains that it bailed out the publisher due to its historical legacy", said the BBC, claiming it had lent the company more than 900 million rupees over the years. The party said the Young Indian was a not-for-profit company, and accused Modi's BJP of using the directorate and other federal agencies as "attack dogs".

"It's the BJP being determined to remain the predominant party and look invincible by weakening the Congress with these allegations and telling voters it can't provide an alternative to the BJP," Neerja Chowdhury, an Indian political analyst, told The Times.

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which came into effect in 2005, allows the Enforcement Directorate to summon anyone without giving a reason. According to data compiled by Reuters last year, the powerful agency has summoned, questioned or raided nearly 150 opposition politicians since Modi came to power in 2014, leading to criticism that it has become a "weapon" of the prime minister to "cull political opponents".

"Financial and investigative agencies of the government have been weaponised to harass, intimidate, silence, and criminalise independent critical voices in the country," said Amnesty International.