Why NDA lost in 2004?

The Congress-UPA has just won 26.7% of popular vote people's mandate while BJP-NDA has won 22.16% only. Congress became the most voted party in this elections with a vote share that was 5% more than BJP. While UPA won 145 seats (gain of 31 seats), NDA won only 138 seats(loss of 44 seats). Although it is not a clear victory for Congress-UPA, it is a clear defeat for BJP-NDA. Here are the core reasons for the BJP-NDA's defeat. 

• NDA projected the election as the battle between Vajapayee and Sonia, and Sonia won and Vajapayee lost.
• NDA fell because of their own weight, own sins and Vajpayee's visionless leadership. 
• Old men are supposed to lose their marbles and AB Vajpayee seems to have lost the same. 
• Media singing songs of Vajpayee's greatness harmed NDA. 
• The media created a hype that Vajpayee is the greatest Indian leader, who could do no wrong and people didn't find any substance in that.
• NDA created an illusion that Vajpayee is the greatest PM, but people of India saw this old man, who never said a word or gave any opinion on any issue and remained silent through out his prime ministership and never took any crucial decision or reigned any of his colleague or Parivar people.
• People saw Vajpayee was old, forgetful and incompetent to solve India's problems while in Sonia Gandhi they saw a fresh face with purpose.
• The middle-class lost their hard-earned money in the UTI scandal.
• Large rural population's welfare has been over looked. 
• Unemployment and anti-poor stance. 
• Over-indulgence on trivial Hindutva issue.
• NDA reduced interest rates and impacted the voters honest savings. 
• The Tehelka reporters who exposed corruption were harassed.
• Concentrating to impress world nations and criminal negligence of the people's problems.
• Inaction on Gujarat CM Modi for not catching either Godhra train massacre culprits or Gujarat communal riots culprits that killed 2000 Muslims.
• After the horrendous massacre, Muslims were expecting that the Gujarat CM Narendra Modi will be put to trial, but instead he was awarded 127/182 seats (2/3rd majority) in mid term polls immediately after the riots with a gain of 10 seats.
• Gross miscalculation of NDA and their misreading of the 'pulse ' of the people.
• Impressive orations, debates and arguments like in court rooms than performance.
• BJP went overboard with the “India Shining” campaign which offended the rural & urban poor. Sonia Gandhi used the opportunity to mock at this campaign by pointing out India’s poverty.
• Anti-incumbancy factor.
• NDA allies too fared very badly - TDP(5/42) in AP & AIADMK(0/39) in Tamilnadu suffered humiliating defeats.
• BJP criticised congress and Sukhram.  Congress expelled Sukhram and in the next election Sukhram becomes an ally of BJP. BJP ought to be more ethical.
• Never in the history India witnessed such a low level malicious campaign by the ruling party. 
• BJP belived that insulting people is Hindu dharma, that's the price they have paid for. That's one of the main aspects in BJP debacle.
• BJPs failure to control Modi and his uncultured tirade against Sonia Gandhi.
• The consistent "Sonia Bashing" by BJP and it's top leaders, the larger than real life images and speeches by the so called second rung leaders of BJP ... Mahajan, Jaitley etc. and Rabble-rousing by Katyar, Modi, Uma bharati etc. have all had negative effects.
• Over-usage of the tasteless word "pseudo-secularism". It was flogged to death. Watching the arrogant BJP men debating on TV in the last two years.
• Corruption as exposed by Tehelka, Petrol-pump, coffin-gate by George Fernandes, etc. had its effect.
• Towards the end of this campaign, the BJP even openly begged Muslims for votes, thereby upsetting lakhs of its conventional supporters.

Elections 2004: BJP pays heavy price for arrogance, haste and strategic blunders

India Today | May 24, 2004 | Prabhu Chawla 

It has become fashion to interpret defeats with figures and statistics. It is very easy to come up with statistics and 'spin' the results any way you want but the reality is that the voting population preferred the Congress and their allies much more to the BJP and its allies. If anyone feels that it was not a mandate for Congress since they did not get majority of votes, it is just a joke. It might have been local issues that have brought the Congress to power and the people had no clue that they were sending Vajpayee packing who never deserved such a drubbing. Indian mentality will not allow appreciate a sacrifice and we always attribute some ulterior motive to every one. Even Mahatma Gandhi had serious critics at his time. No one wants to acknowledge Sonia Gandhi's sacrifice. If Sonia Gandhi wanted to become prime minister, nobody could have stopped her even if it was for one month and go down in history. If any one tries to find out for reasons why BJP should have won in 2004, he would have been amused with none. Vajpayee's inaction against Modi-Gujarat riots and ignoring poor and peasants are the primary causes for NDA's debacle in 2004. Today in 2018 similar situations are prevailing that is causing jitters among BJP, Modi & co., who are clueless how to come overcome this mess they created for themselves.

Sonia Gandhi outmaneuvers Modi in Karnataka

Karnataka Elections 2018 Results

What Karnataka Governor Can Do?

Recent Precedents Favoring BJP

Arun Jaitley - Goa Assembly Elections 2017

By hook or crook, BJP is hell bent on formation of government in Karnataka, despite falling short of numbers by 8. While JDS has accepted post-poll coalition with Congress, for CM position to its leader Kumaraswamy, independents & others are just 3 and are in no position to help BJP. The only option left for BJP is to engineer defections from JDS or Congress and that is what they are doing exactly by making Governor not inviting Kumaraswamy to form government and BJP leader BS Yedurappa asking Governor for inviting him, on the basis of being leader of the largest party, to form Government without majority numbers and no confirmed support and asking one week time to prove majority on the floor of the house thus getting sufficient time for horse trading of JDS & Congress MLAs, shamelessly. When the Governor acts decisively and correctly or what shape the issue takes and ends up is for the time to decide.

Earlier while BJP was rejoicing their certainty of reaching magic figure, Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi moved in swiftly by offering JDS to form government and Congress willing to support from outside unconditionally was readily accepted by Deve Gowda & Kumaraswamy with a condition that Congress be a part of coalition with Dy.CM, Speaker and 19 ministerial positions and JDS taking CM & 12 cabinet positions which Congress actually wants to get from JDS. Realising the situation BJP too reached out to JDS offering them with DyCM post etc, but was ignored by them. Deve Gowda always maintained that he was secular and always opposed to RSS-Hindutva idealogy.

Now Modi & BJP's central team staying at Bengaluru todo every possible thing for BS Yedurappa forming BJP Government unethically, immorally, unconstitutionally etc and luring all non-BJP MLAs is nothing but murder of democracy and rape of constitution in the streets of Bengaluru by Modi, Amit Shah, BJP, Governor etc. But they won't care. All that they want is power in Karnataka and perceived political entry into South India, otherwise Modi & BJP are certain to lose 2019 General Elections in the reality of negative vibrations in West & North India due to Modi government's gross under performance and economic distress, as per political analysts. BJP & needs to win as many MP seats as possible in South, East and North East otherwise Modi & Shah will get dumped back in Ahmedabad.

Vinod Rai's cushy jobs

Read the source article

The question is then CAG between 2008-13, Vinod Rai, holding constitutional position appointed by UPA exceeded his brief by publishing 2G Scam with humongous corruption figures of Rs. 180,000 crores without any substance or basis but also published booklets and distributed free of charge to all MPs to rake in Parliament which eventually was exploited by BJP, Modi, Arnab Goswami and many more. CBI, working directly under Modi could file in its charge sheet, in the 2G Scam case, corruption to the extent of Rs.30,000 crores only which was torn apart by the CBI Court Judge that not a single document nor an evidence was submitted by CBI or anyone to the court in the 2G Scam case for six long years. Vinod Rai, even though a retired person, kept stoic silence thereafter. Why?

While no one will be saint to dole out licenses without kickbacks, then and now as well, it was Vinod Rai who did the damage to UPA, Sonia Gandhi, MMS and Congress benefiting BJP, Modi etc. How come Supreme Court remembers only Vinod Rai every time and three times simultaneously to appoint him for what ever the work available with it? Is he the only competent person in whole India? After all, he is only an IAS officer without any specialized qualification but only long experience in Delhi corridors. As far as my knowledge and experience goes, Delhi will never come to my doorstep, no matter how much talented I am, but I must lick their boots to get any posting. Recollect shunting out of Amartya Sen and Raghuram Rajan by Modi administration, ruthlessly.

There is no question that Vinod Rai has RSS & BJP inclinations, despite licking boots of then FM P.Chidambaram to get CAG posting and then doing enormous damage to them. If not, why Vinod Rai hasn't criticized Modi & BJP during past 4 years, even once, despite enormous damages inflicted on the nation by Modi & BJP?

Amit Shah: Sunstroke

• Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah's son Jay Amitbhai Shah's Temple Enterprise Private Ltd. engaged in negligible activities and recorded losses in previous years. 
• In 2014-15, it showed a profit of Rs 18,728 on revenues of only Rs 50,000 before jumping to a turnover of Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-16.
• Temple Enterprise’s revenues came at a time when the firm received an unsecured loan of Rs 15.78 crore from a financial services firm owned by Rajesh Khandwala, the samdhi (in-law) of Parimal Nathwani, a Rajya Sabha MP and top executive of Reliance Industries.
• Shah’s lawyer sent in a response with a warning that criminal and civil defamation proceedings would be launched in the event of “any slant or imputation which alleges or suggests any impropriety on his part.”
• During UPA-II, BJP confronted Congress party president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra, how he managed to grow his real estate businesses on the basis of unsecured loans from DLF. 
• The massive increase in revenues is coming from the “sale of products”. This included Rs 51 crore of foreign earnings, up from zero the previous year.
• The ROC filings reveal an unsecured loan of Rs 15.78 crore from a listed entity, KIFS Financial Services. The revenue of KIFS Financial Services for the same financial year when the loan was given was Rs 7 crore. The annual report of KIFS Financial Services does not reflect the Rs 15.78 crore unsecured loan given to Temple Enterprise.
• KIFS Financial Services promoter Rajesh Khandwala’s daughter is married to Parimal Nathwani’s son. Ahmedabad-based Nathwani heads the Gujarat operations of Reliance Industries. He is an independent member of parliament from the upper house. His re-election to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 was supported by BJP legislators in Jharkhand.
• Jay Shah’s lawyer said in his written response to The Wire stated that Rajesh Khandwala is an old friend of Shah's family.
• Specific question to Khandwala about why the annual report of KIFS Financial Services for the loan year does not mention the loan to Jay Shah’s company went unanswered.
• The massive increase in revenues is described in the filings as coming from the “sale of products”. This included Rs 51 crore of foreign earnings, up from zero the previous year.
• Shah’s filings with the RoC also reflect Rs 25 crore worth of finance from the Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank. The board of directors of the bank include individuals from the Nirma group and Nirma university. The chairman emeritus of the bank is Nirma’s Ambubhai Maganbhai Patel.
• Chudasama, a former director of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank, was chargesheeted by the CBI in 2010 for attempting to “convince, coerce, threaten, and influence witnesses on [Amit Shah’s] behalf to conceal the truth from the CBI” about the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser-bi. In 2015, a special CBI court discharged Chudasama from the case, just as it had discharged Amit Shah too in December 2014.
• Jay Shah’s partnership has also availed of a Rs 10.35 crore loan from IREDA. It is controlled by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Piyush Goyal was the minister at the time the loan was sanctioned.
• BJP will unleash 'whataboutery' technique instead of defending or explaining.

The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah

Kudos to Rohini Singh and The Wire for exhibiting courage to publish article against Modi & Amit Shah when entire media got subverted and dancing to Modi's tunes. The report created ripples on social media. Jay Amit Shah filing defamation case and his advocate abstaining from court speaks volumes. Piyush Goyal addressing a press conference defending a non-political entity but also proudly proclaiming that Jay Amit Shah would slap a 100 crore defamation suit against the organization and its reporter is only meek acknowledgement of facts. There was an eerie silence on news channels. In an ideal world this intimidation should have led to an outrage in the media. An investigative report should have been the subject of discussion, criticism, arguments and debate. Silence by intimidation being the last on the charter of a journalistic organization. The BJP leaders, including Union Railways minister Piyush Goyal and Home Minister Rajnath Singh have defended Jay Shah, even as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took potshots at BJP saying that BJP's campaign of Beti Bachao (save the girl child) now appears to have turned in to the campaign about Beta Bachao (save the son). All politicians are same whether BJP or Congress. They loot public money for personal enrichment. They are parasites barring very few exceptions. As the citizens of India, it is our right to demand that the govt and its loonies stop destroying an important hallmark of democracy [Media]. Who ever posed a threat to our media will be voted out. 

Dynasty runs every where in India

Dynasty runs every where in India in all walks of life -- politics, businesses, professions, and so on. This undermines merit, the essence of democracy. Royal titles having been abolished but Indians seem to not given up on the idea of dynastic rule. About 30% of the current MPs are dynasts.

• Whether it’s politics, businesses, or bollywood, Indians seem to have trust in their off springs, irrespective of whether they might be deserving or not. The stunning example is Rahul Gandhi.
• Dynasts are a widespread phenomenon in Asia. Singapore is effectively run by the Lee family. In China, sons and daughters of leading party members are known as 'red princes' because of the influence they wield. With the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, and the Bush family, America can't afford to sneer at Indian dynasts.
• Dynasticism works in modern political systems because it appeals to notions of inherited charisma that help legitimize leadership succession and minimize organisational division. In India, dynasts do seem able to hold parties together. 
• The Nehru-Gandhi family is the most prominent political dynasty in the country with four generations of the family having ruled the country. The Nehru-Gandhi family is the keystone of the Congress party. Take them out and the Congress party collapses. There are several dynasties across party lines all over the country. There seems nothing objectionable in political power passing from parent to progeny. In India dynasties are serving the needs of the present times while preserving democracy by providing a measure of stability.
• Even big business houses are quite often family-run enterprises. The Birlas, the Tatas and the Ambanis, three names that signify wealth and entrepreneurship for Indians, have passed on the baton from generation to generation, rarely allowing outsiders to head their conglomerates.
• One of Sonia Gandhi’s fiercest critics, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray slammed her and her family for running a “fiefdom” and then went ahead and did exactly the same thing. In 2004, Thackeray declared his son, a political novice, as leader of Siva Sena.
• The Bollywood is dotted with “star kids” hoping that their children will continue to capture the imagination of audiences, lack of talent notwithstanding. Some have made it and some have fallen by the wayside.
• Governments run by 'the dynasty' doled out more subsidies, spent more and indebted the economy more than by non-dynastic governments. Subsidies create distortions in asset use, dampen individual incentives, promoted rampant corruption and resulted in retarded economic growth & development of nation.
• The communists and the Jan Sangh (BJP) were participants in Indian elections from the very beginning. Yet, in comparison to the Congress, they are far less dynastic.
• America which shouts loudest about democracy could be described as a plutocracy, such is the wealth required to enter the political fray as a major player there.

If you are not a communist at 20 you have problem with your heart and 

if you are not a capitalist by 40 you have problem with your brain ... Sudha Murthy

In a democracy it is the 'will' of the people which is supreme. Dynasty or non-dynasty is immaterial, as long as the candidate ascends to position based on the principle of the 'rule of the law'. There is no bar on dynastic descendant to participate in the process of elections. Most politicians forget that what ever sense or nonsense they do as per their whims is not necessarily in the interest of people nor has their approval. Therefore the processes must be transparent and followed at all times, discretion must be exercised rarely or never, accountability at all times, and financial matters must always have prior legislature approval. To ensure these, institutions must be strong and independent and must not be trampled with. Unfortunately that is not happening and opposite is prevailing. Social media cramped with BJP trolls are spreading untruths always pro-BJP and anti-Congress sentiments where as the fact is that both are as bad as each other. Today very few are bothered about worst state of economy, unemployment, distressed agriculture, perilous banking sector etc but are happily engaged in dirty politics and chest thumping for nothing with trophy projects or achievements. The kind of money spent each day on government advertisements for self aggrandizement -- a small town or 100 villages could be modernized every day.

Post Nehru, Congress governments rule resulted in rampant corruption and unmanageable subsidies and political landscape got filled with corruption money, musclemen and criminals. However, non congress governments headed by Morarji Desai and VP Singh did no better or even worse. Vajpayee did nothing except building highways & roads and could not control communal riots especially in Gujarat. Congress governments succeeding these non congress catastrophic governments provided much needed stability and economic recovery. Today, Modi government's 3+ year rule there is nothing to boast off except relentless publicity with economic parameters worse than where he started in 2014 despite very low oil prices. Failed demonetization, mangled GST hurriedly rolled out impacted economy greatly. With PSU banks on the verge of collapse with nearly Rs.10 lakh crores of NPAs economic recovery prior to 2019 is unlikely. 

Therefore, dynasty or non-dynasty is not an issue as long as it has people's mandate. Under Modi administration several state governments patronized by Modi's BJP don't have electoral mandate but are in power with manipulation of numbers. Matter of shame in the largest democracy.

Gujarat RS Polls: Ahmed Patel wins & BJP exposed

Ahmed Patel’s victory is a severe setback to BJP president Amit Shah who pulled out all the stops to deny Sonia Gandhi’s close aide a fifth term in the Rajya Sabha. Congress representatives sent the EC a video recording of the two Congress MLAs stood sheepishly in front of Shah displaying their ballot papers, confirming that they had held up their end of the bargain*, the BJP leader had struck with them. BJP deployed all underhand methods ever known in politics, money power, muscle power, you name it, they have deployed it to ensure defeat of Patel, but in vain and BJP stands exposed of personal vendetta and political terror. But what they forgot was that if a party has issued a whip, the MLAs can show their vote to their authorized polling agent only. If it is shown to anyone else, the vote becomes invalid. In the end, it was Shah’s personal involvement in the operation that proved the BJP’s undoing with the EC invalidating the votes of two Congress defectors since they had showed their ballots to BJP president. The fact that six union ministers led by Arun Jaitley marched down to the Election Commission not once but twice to try and sway the outcome indicates shameless involvement of Modi. The Election Commission initially refused to entertain Congress complaint and left it to the state returning officer to take a call and decide but eventually decided to look at the video of the voting before taking any fresh decision. Kudos to Election Commission for sticking to 'rule of the law' fearlessly.

*The deal rumored as Rs.15 crores in cash, next assembly ticket and campaign expenses.

Treat people with respect on your way up because you will be meeting them 

on your way down ... a bitter  lesson learnt by Ahmed Patel

Sonia Gandhi - Then and Now!

Sonia's parents, the Mainos were poor those days. Her father was a mason and mother a share cropper.

Sonia Gandhi 5th std dropout. Sonia went to the town of Cambridge and first learnt some English in a teaching shop called Lennox School, which has been wound up in 1970. That is all her “education” which is enough English language to get domestic help jobs.

Sonia Gandhi, when she was an 18-year-old student at a small language college in Cambridge in 1965, making ends meet by working as a waitress in the Varsity restaurant, when she met a handsome young engineering student Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi too failed to get his degree at Cambridge.

Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement in politics. Rajiv worked as an airline pilot while Sonia took care of her family. When Rajiv entered politics in 1982 after the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash on June 23, 1980, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided all contact with the public. Sonia Gandhi's involvement with Indian public life began after the assassination of her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, and her husband Rajiv Gandhi's election as prime minister. As the prime minister's wife she acted as his official hostess and also accompanied him on a number of state visits. In 1984, she actively campaigned against her husband's sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi who was running against Rajiv in Amethi.

During the 1971 war, Sonia with her family took refuge in Italy. Under emergency provisions, the leave of all Indian Airlines pilots were cancelled and the only exception was Rajiv Gandhi the great husband of Sonia and son of Prime Minister of India, a full-time pilot with Indian Airlines.

After news came in that the Congress and Indira Gandhi had been defeated in 1977 elections, fearing consequences of emergency atrocities committed by Indira Gandhi and Congress, Sonia Gandhi decided to run away to Italy with husband Rajiv and children. To evade immediate arrest Sonia Gandhi with her husband and children in tow, took refuge in the Italian embassy in New Delhi's Chanakyapuri. It took the combined efforts of Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi, to convince her to return to the Gandhi home.

She did not even apply for Indian citizenship for 16 years though living in Prime Minister’s house.

It is rumored that Sonia and Madhavrao Scindia were seeing each other in the early 1980s. Even they were involved in an accident near IIT, Delhi. Madhav Rao Scindia was driving the car and Sonia was the only passenger. She was immediately sent to the PM residence and Mr. Scindia was admitted to hospital. Again, nothing official is about this relationship.

Sonia, according to a Swiss magazine (published in 1991), Schweitzer Illustrate, Rajiv Gandhi, her late husband had secret Swiss accounts worth $ 2 billion. Sonia is known for her close association with Italian fugitive Quattrocchi.  Sonia and her family are believed to have looted country wealth worth billions of dollars.

Many had hailed Sonia Gandhi when she refused to head the Congress party or become prime minister after Rajiv was assassinated in May 1991, thus paving the way for P V Narasimha Rao to head the government. Later more and more voices are heard about her 'indecent haste' and 'greed to become prime minister'.

Sonia refused to be part of any toppling game, which once again enhanced her image. After the 1998 electoral defeat, Sitaram Kesri was stripped of his post of AICC President on March 14, 1998 by the Congress Working Committee. Sonia Gandhi was appointed president of the Congress party in his place. Kesari's removal from the Congress Working Committee is considered by some as a betrayal of the party constitution, considering how Pranab Mukherjee and others conspired to eliminate Kesri from the party for Sonia Gandhi. Congressmen and women had not really thought about the implication of having her as prime minister. Most party workers and leaders saw in her a chance of winning the elections and regaining lost ground. Many even believed that she would anoint her nominee as prime minister. Given these pitfalls why did Sonia Gandhi agree to become prime minister? It is believed that if she does become prime minister, even if only for a few days / weeks, her privileges as a former prime minister, Sonia Gandhi will be entitled to whatever other ex-prime ministers are, without question.

Sonia is known for her vindictive nature. She is known not to spare even her party men and routinely humiliates them. She even humiliated the dead body by denying a respectful funeral, of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao who did not encourage Sonia’s political growth.

In Jan 2002, the activities of Vadra's father and brother came to Sonia's notice for the first time when Vilasrao Deshmukh referred to her a request from them for flats in Mumbai from his discretionary quota. Later, Sonia is said to have received calls from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and Karnataka's S.M. Krishna about Vadra's visits. Khursheed says Richard had approached him for a party ticket for a friend from Moradabad. As charges flew thick that money was changing hands for party tickets for the forthcoming assembly elections, Sonia got daughter Priyanka Gandhi's husband Robert Vadra to issue a public notice dissociating himself from his father Rajinder and brother Richard who have been "promising jobs and other favours in return for money". Sonia was hailed as a "stickler for propriety".

But Sonia Gandhi's outlook changed after trouncing NDA in 2004 general elections. Even though she missed PM's position and has to satisfy herself with UPA Chairman's position, her misdeeds thereafter makes me wonder how much true this quotation of Abraham Lincoln was ... "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power... Abraham Lincoln"

In 2006, the Indian government put Sonia Gandhi’s interest, to avenge the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE in 1991, above national interest and actively assisted the brutal Sri Lankan genocide of at least 70,000 Tamils between 2006-2009, by remaining deafeningly silent, that has culminated in liquidation of LTTE and murder of its chief Prabhakaran in May 2009.
See LTTE, IPKF, Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and Murder of Prabhakaran.
This has relegated Tamils as second class citizens in Sri Lanka permanently thus defeating them in their 40 year ethnic conflict for equal rights.

Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra was exempted from pre-embarkation security checks in all Indian airports during UPA regime of 10 years.

Robert Vadra started minting money in questionable business deals with DLF etc and their constructing Simla home circumventing laws. It is rumored that Vadra amassed a fortune worth over 10,000 crores in 10 years just by being the son-in-law to the most powerful woman in India.

The National Herald scam is an ongoing court case against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. As per the complaint, Indian National Congress granted an interest-free loan of  Rs.90.25 crore to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), owner of the National Herald newspaper which was established by Jawaharlal Nehru and other freedom fighters in 1938. It was alleged that the loan was either not repaid or repaid in cash, which is in violation Income Tax Act. A closely held company, Young Indian, was incorporated in November 2010 with a capital of Rs.50 lakh and it acquired almost all the shareholding of AJL and all its properties worth Rs.5,000 crore. It was alleged criminal misappropriation by both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The courts have determined that a prima facie case has been established in the matter.


Some other famous scams where Sonia Gandhi is linked are:

1. Maruti scam
2. Bofors scam
3. Vadra DLF Scam
4. 2G spectrum scam (2008): In 2008, the country issued 122 new telecom licences to several domestic companies that had little or no experience in the telecom sector, and at a price set in 2001. It is estimated that the spectrum scam led to a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government.
5. CWG scam (2010): Former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi and nine others were charged for allegedly cheating, conspiring and causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer in CWG-related corruption case. 
6. Coal scam (2012): Irregularities in auctioning 194 coal blocks created a massive uproar and government heavily criticised for causing a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crores.
7. Chopper scam (2012): Former Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi was allegedly paid bribes to swing a Rs 3,600 crores deal for procuring 12 choppers from Italian firm Finmeccanica to ferry VVIPS.
8. Tatra truck scam (2012): The Enforecement Directorate had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in April, 2013 against Vectra Chairman Ravi Rishi and few other firms after former Army chief Gen V K Singh had alleged that he was offered a Rs 14 crore bribe in September, 2010 to clear the purchase of a tranche of 1,676 Tatra trucks for the Army.
9. Adarsh scam (2012): The Adarsh controversy had erupted with reports which alleged that the land belonging to the defence had been given away by the state for the society where bureaucrats got themselves flats. It was seen that even politicians and army personnel connived to grab apartments in this plush 31-storey Colaba building overlooking the defence area.
10. IPL scam (2013): Three Rajasthan Royal players, S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, arrested for alleged spot fixing in the IPL by the Delhi.