Kamala Nehru Trust Scam: A Congress scam even after seven years of no-Congress

Many scams were carried out under the rule of the Congress party and even when the party is out of power for the last seven years, newer scams are being unearthed. In Rae Bareli, the constituency of Sonia Gandhi, the Kamala Nehru Education Society owns many acres of government land. The trust that has many Gandhi family loyalist like Salman Khurshid and Vikram Kaul, son of former Rae Bareli MLA Sheela Kaul, among the members.

Decades after, the 5-bigha government land that was allotted to the trust for the education of girls is yet to be utilised and now the members of the Congress party are planning to sell it. The matter was first brought to public notice by Congress party rebel and the MLA from Rae Bareli Sadar constituency, Aditi Singh.

On November 2 last year, Singh wrote a letter to the Economic Offences Wing of the Uttar Pradesh Police, highlighting the corruption by Kamala Nehru Education Society. The UP Police picked up the matter and found that the allegations were true. On December 16, the police bulldozed many properties of Kamala Nehru Trust, that were acquired illegally. Homes of more than 300 families which built houses on the government-owned land were also bulldozed.

Now UP government has registered FIR against the then ADM FR Madan Pal Arya, Sub Registrar Ghanshyam, Administrative Officer Vindhyavasini Prasad, Nazool Clerk Ram Krishna Srivastava and Kamala Nehru Trust Secretary Sunil Dev, Vikram Kaul, and Sunil Tiwari. Vikram Kaul, who is the maternal cousin of Indira Gandhi and grandfather of Rahul and Priyanka, used to look after the management of the trust.

The 12 accused were booked under sections 417, 420, 467, 468, 471 of the IPC by the Kotwali police. IPC Section 474, including the Public Property Damage Prevention Act, 1984, under Section 4 and 5, has also been included in the FIR.

The trust seems to have been formed to further the interest of the Gandhi family, not the education of the girls, as claimed in the objectives. Just like other entities owned by the Nehru-Gandhi family, this trust allegedly has a plethora of land from the government for free in the name of social service.

Given the fact that Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family is facing a fund crunch now, the managers of Kamala Nehru Education Society decided to sell the land that was transferred to it by the government.

Aditi Singh, the rebel Congress MLA who raised the issue initially, thanked CM Yogi Adityanath for ordering a probe in the case. “I would like to thank up cm for pushing for a probe and registering a case against the culprits. the Gandhi family has huge stakes in the trust with Vikram Kaul and Salman Khursheed being members. the land was allocated for education of girls, but was never used for this purpose,” she said.

The Gandhi family reportedly owns properties worth millions in the country directly and indirectly. There are many trusts in the name of Kamla Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi, which are controlled by the family matriarch, Sonia Gandhi.

The Gandhi family seems to have maintained its hold over the power circles of the country for more than six decades by creating a deep state which backs it irrespective of the party seats in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and the assemblies. However, with their declining seats, many whistleblowers like Aditi Singh are coming out to criticise them. The Modi government at the centre or other BJP governments in the state, are ready to take action against the Gandhi family whenever a scam is unearthed, unlike the successive governments.