Sarkaari damaad (official/government’s son-in-law) or not, Robert Vadra has officially started hurting her mother- and brother-in-law’s party. Despite the bluster kept by the Congress – party leader Jagdambika Pal on Tuesday (Aug 13) said Vadra is “Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, not the raashtriya damaad. The issue they are raising has no relevance to the government, it is a matter of the state”, while Renuka Chowdhury, in her everything-in-life-is-meant-to-be-pooh-poohed swagger, said the party would be more than happy to offer the politically unsuccessful BJP lessons free of cost – it’s Vadra’s recurrent could-be-shady image that is hurting the Congress.

So what the party is left to do each time Vadra’s name comes up in the media these days is rush to his defence – certainly not the best form of offence in a country waiting for the dates of the general elections. With a host of states going to the polls before the Lok Sabha elections (scheduled next summer, though many politicians claim off the record that it is likely to come up earlier), it may not be the best situation for the ruling party to be in, despite the apparent snarky offensive by the likes of Chowdhury.

So, as the BJP members shouted “Congress ka haath, damaad ke saath” (Congress party’s hand with the son-in-law) in Lok Sabha on August 13, and met with counter-slogans “Congress ka haath, janata ke saath, garib ke saath” (Congress’s hand is with the people and the poor), post-sparring in the ring, the Congress would go back to its corner knowing well that it has to return home with an eye always over the shoulder. Trying to second-guess the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party’s motive in backing the Congress chief in parliament.

Both parties, as is well known, hardly bat an eyelid unless it’s a quid pro quo situation. With neither Mulayam Singh Yadav nor Mayawati known to be icons of fiscal integrity, the Congress would do well to keep the back of its mind busy about the pound of flesh that might be sought for their support on the issue while the party decides to go all guns blazing in backing Vadra to the hilt.

Unfortunately for the Congress, the sequence of events over the past couple of weeks also stacks up against it. First a certain (and till then completely obscure) Durga Shakti Nagpal, an SDM in Greater Noida, was suspended by the Uttar Pradesh administration. Before anyone had much inkling on what was happening, the issue got picked up by the media. With the events of post-gangrape protests in Delhi perhaps fresh in her mind, Congress president did not want to take another chance of the UPA government getting a rap from the public (in the present case primarily media-fired public wrath). On August 2, within a week of Nagpal’s suspension, Gandhi shot off a letter to the prime minister. “...There is widespread concern because the officer, in the course of her public duties, was seen to be standing up to vested interests engaging in illegal activity.... We must ensure the officer is unfairly treated.”

No sooner had the Congress taken the moral high ground than the media reported on Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka’s report to the state government’s inquiry committee for the Vadra-DLF land deal. Khemka reportedly accused Vadra of making several “sham transactions” for a piece of land in Gurgaon, among others. His report also blamed the kin of Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda of making illegal land deals with DLF.

Now, the moment Khemka’s report was out, the Congress had to go on the backfoot – for there was little in way of reason and even less logic for Sonia Gandhi to speak up for one “upright” officer and remain mute on another, both serving in the national capital region (NCR).

The problem for both the Congress and its present president (effectively for the vice-president as well, but for Rahul Gandhi’s relative silence on most issues) is that they can rarely speak against corruption or take up issues like probity in public life with the Vadra issue hitting them smack in the face. For, it is to be noted that neither Sonia nor the Congress have said much about Durga Shakti Nagpal’s purported innocence since the Khemka ghost began to haunt and hound them afresh.

Shorn of much support – this time even the Congress MP from Gurgaon, Rao Inderjit Singh, said Vadra should be punished if he is guilty, making him the first Congress leader to admit there could be a case against Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law – the Congress has to thus depend on the likes of SP and BSP to get some vocal strength. And with the elections drawing close, that isn’t an ideal option for the party.