A Backdoor 'Takeover'

As someone who grew up respecting the role the Congress party played in India’s freedom movement, it pains me to witness how far the party has fallen. Nothing exemplifies this more than the sordid saga of Young India and the looting of the National Herald legacy. What was once a proud publication, founded by the Congress party in 1938 to amplify the voice of nationalism, has now become the centrepiece of what I see as one of the most blatant acts of political appropriation in independent India.

Let’s be clear about one thing: National Herald was never the personal property of the Nehru family. It was launched by the Indian National Congress, and while Jawaharlal Nehru was its first editor, he didn’t own it. It was meant to serve the party — not a dynasty. That’s why what Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi did through Young Indian Pvt Ltd is, in my view, nothing short of a betrayal of that legacy.

They created Young India in 2010, holding 76% of the shares between them. Then, magically, this company took over Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL), the publisher of National Herald. How? Through a paper transaction in which the Congress party waived off Rs 90 crore in loans given to AJL — and handed over assets worth over Rs 2,000 crore to Young India without any money changing hands. I ask: who benefits from this sleight of hand?

Even more shocking is the role of the late Motilal Vohra — Congress president, party treasurer, and conveniently, a shareholder in both AJL and Young India. He approved loans, managed assets, and wore every possible hat in this scheme. It was like watching a referee play striker and goalkeeper at once, all while pretending the match was fair.

People tell me this is just politics — that this is vendetta by the BJP and Modi government. I don’t buy it. The complaint was filed by Subramanian Swamy in 2011, before Modi became Prime Minister. If this were vendetta, why would a case from the UPA era still stand up in court today? Why are Sonia and Rahul Gandhi out on bail, and why has the Enforcement Directorate filed a detailed chargesheet with documented evidence?

The bigger question is this: why did the Congress, while in power, spend lavishly on ads for private media outlets like NDTV but fail to revive its own newspaper? I’ll tell you why — because the goal was never to revive National Herald. The goal was to quietly acquire its assets and convert public trust into private wealth.

What makes it worse is the Congress’s audacity to cloak this scandal in Nehru’s name. They keep invoking his legacy as if that justifies everything. But National Herald wasn’t Nehru’s personal property, and neither is the Congress party the family’s inheritance. I find it deeply dishonest — and frankly insulting — that the party leadership continues to act as if loyalty to Nehru equates to ownership of everything he once touched.

I say this not out of malice, but out of sorrow. Because if the Congress party once represented the soul of India’s democratic dream, it now stands as a cautionary tale. This is not just about real estate or old newspapers. It is about how institutions are hollowed out from within. About how the idea of Congress — built by countless freedom fighters — was quietly hijacked by a family that turned it into a private enterprise.

The courts will decide the legal outcome. But in the court of public conscience, I’ve made up my mind. Young India is not about young India. It’s about an old trick — the same dynastic entitlement, the same silence when accountability is demanded, the same arrogance that brought the Congress to the brink.

And unless that changes, the party will never recover — nor should it.