Robert Vadra | |
|---|---|
 Vadra in 2014 | |
| Born | Robert Vadra 18 April 1969 |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | See Nehru–Gandhi family |
Robert Vadra (born 18 April 1969) is an Indian entrepreneur, and the husband of Priyanka Gandhi. [1] [2] He is the son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi and the brother-in-law of Rahul Gandhi.
Robert Vadra was born to Rajendra and Maureen Vadra on 18 April 1969. His father's family is of Punjabi descent settled in Moradabad district, Uttar Pradesh. [3] His paternal family is originally from Sialkot in present-day Pakistan. Rajendra's father moved to India at the time of partition. [4] His mother Maureen (née McDonagh) is of Anglo Indian origin, with roots stretching back to Scotland. Rajendra was a resident of Civil Lines, Moradabad and ran a diamond trading along with brass and wood handicrafts business.[ citation needed ] Rajendra Vadra has only completed his high school education. [5]
Robert Vadra's brother Richard died by suicide and his sister Michelle died in a car accident in 2001. [6] [7] His father was found dead on April 3, 2009 in City Inn, a guest house in the Yusuf Sarai area of Delhi.
In January 2002, Vadra issued a notice in print newspaper distancing himself from his father and brother as they were misusing his relationship with the Nehru–Gandhi family to make money while promising jobs and other favours. [8] Following this, Sonia Gandhi, the then Congress president also issued a notice to all Congress CMs, state unit heads and senior party members to stay away from Vadra and his family. [9]
Until 2012, while Vadra was mostly in the background, he became a target for several opposition parties after the 2012 anti-corruption movement, India against corruption made allegations against him. [10] These allegations got further politicization after several instances of Congress party spokespersons defending allegations on Vadra, stating he was a soft target. [11]
While Vadra is not into active politics he has been actively campaigning for his brother-in-law Rahul Gandhi and mother-in-law Sonia Gandhi. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, he campaigned actively across India for several candidates. [12] Recently on his 50th birthday, when asked about his intent to join active politics, Vadra stated it would happen 2–3 years later. [13]
Rajiv Gandhi was an Indian politician who served as the 6th Prime Minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the assassination of his mother, then–prime minister Indira Gandhi, to become at the age of 40 the youngest Indian prime minister. He served until his defeat at the 1989 election, and then became Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha, resigning in December 1990, six months before his own assassination.
Sonia Gandhi is an Indian politician. She is the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. She took over as the party leader in 1998, seven years after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, her husband and a former Prime Minister of India, and remained in office until 2017 after serving for twenty-two years. She returned to the post in 2019 and remained the President for another three years.
Rahul Rajiv Gandhi is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament who represents the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala, in the Lok Sabha. He previously represented the constituency of Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. He is a member of the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, and was the party president from December 2017 to July 2019. Gandhi is the chairperson of the Indian Youth Congress, the National Students Union of India and a trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust. He is the son of the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is an Indian politician and the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee. She is the daughter of former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, sister of Rahul Gandhi, and granddaughter of Feroze and Indira Gandhi, making her a member of the politically prominent Nehru-Gandhi family. She is also a trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
Rajendra Prasad was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independence movement and became a major leader from the region of Bihar and Maharashtra. A supporter of Mahatma Gandhi, Prasad was imprisoned by British authorities during the Salt Satyagraha of 1930 and the Quit India movement of 1942. After the constituent assembly 1946 elections, Prasad served as 1st Minister of Food and Agriculture in the central government from 1947 to 1948. Upon independence in 1947, Prasad was elected as President of the Constituent Assembly of India, which prepared the Constitution of India and which served as its provisional Parliament.
The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation was established on 21 June 1991. The foundation works on a range of issues including development of knowledge, health, disability, authorization of the destitute, livelihoods and natural resource management. Its current focus areas are community welfare, literacy, health and special programmes for children and women. All donations to the foundation are tax deductible to the extent of 50 percent under section 80G of the Income Tax Act.
Ottavio Quattrocchi was an Italian businessman who was being sought until early 2009 in India for criminal charges for acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal. Quattrocchi's role in this scandal, and his proximity to Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi through his wife Sonia Gandhi, is thought to have contributed to the defeat of the Congress Party in the 1989 elections. In 1999, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named Quattrocchi in a chargesheet as the conduit for the Bofors bribe. The case against him was strengthened in June 2003, when Interpol revealed two bank accounts, 5A5151516M and 5A5151516L, held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria with the BSI AG bank, London, containing Euros 3 million and $1 million, a "curiously large savings for a salaried executive". In January 2006, these frozen bank accounts were unexpectedly released by India's law ministry, apparently without the consent of the CBI which had asked for them to be frozen.
St. Columba's School in Delhi, India, was established in 1941 by the Indian Province of the Irish Christian Brothers, which was founded by Edmund Ignatius Rice. It is named after an Irish saint. The school's campus is located in the heart of Delhi and extends over 7 acres.
Letters from a Father to His Daughter is a collection of letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru to his daughter Indira Nehru, originally published in 1929 by Allahabad Law Journal Press at Nehru's request and consisting of only the 30 letters sent in the summer of 1928 when Indira was 10 years old. He arranged a second edition in 1931 and subsequently, further reprints and editions have been published.
The Nehru–Gandhi family is an Indian political family that has occupied a prominent place in the politics of India. The involvement of the family has traditionally revolved around the Indian National Congress, as various members have traditionally led the party. Three members of the family—Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi—have served as the prime minister of India, while several others have been members of parliament (MP).
Gandhi is an Indian surname.
Leela Samson is a Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, instructor, writer and actress from India. As a soloist, she is known for her technical virtuosity and has taught Bharatanatyam at Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra in Delhi for many years.
Ashok Khemka is an Indian civil service bureaucrat. He is an Indian Administrative Service officer of 1991 batch. He is best known for cancelling the mutation of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's illegal land deal in Gurgaon. As of January 2023, he has been transferred 55 times in 30 years by state governments after he exposed corruption in the departments he was posted in. He is a whistleblower of several scams that took place under Bhupinder Hooda's regime, including the Robert Vadra DLF land grab scam, Sonepat-Kharkhoda IMT land scam case, and Garhi Sampla Uddar Gagan land scam. Ashok Khemka is Haryana's second-most transferred bureaucrat after another retired IAS officer, Pradeep Kasni, who was transferred 71 times in 35 years.
The Indian National Congress (INC) is one of the two major political parties in India. The prominent members of the party are the president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Priyanka Gandhi. INC took part in the elections alongside other members of the United Progressive Alliance. On the fourth anniversary of the second United Progressive Alliance government, the INC announced that its campaign for the election would be led by Prime minister Manmohan Singh, party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
Civil Lines is a residential neighbourhood in Moradabad, India. It is one of the various Civil Lines neighbourhoods developed by the British Raj for the senior officers in British India. The Moradabad Club is also situated in this neighbourhood. Though a residential neighbourhood, commercial buildings can also be seen in the area. Moradabad's first shopping mall Crossroads Mall also came up in this neighbourhood in 2006. The area also has numerous schools, hospitals and shopping areas. The income tax department building is also located in the neighbourhood.
The National Herald case is the ongoing case in a Delhi court filed by Indian economist and politician Subramanian Swamy against politicians Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, their companies and associated persons. As per the complaint filed in the court of the Metropolitan Magistrate, Associated Journals Limited (AJL) took an interest-free loan of ₹90.25 crore (US$11 million) from Indian National Congress. It is alleged that the loan was not repaid. A closely held company, Young Indian, was incorporated in November 2010 with a paid up capital of 5 Lac and it acquired almost all the shareholding of AJL and all its properties. Swamy alleged criminal misappropriation by both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
AJL-National Herald Panchkula land grab scam case, allegedly against Bhupinder Singh Hooda currently in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, is under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED). This case pertains to Hooda's alleged role for misusing his position as then Chief Minister of Haryana to cause wrongful gains to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and corresponding loss to the Government of Haryana, by illegally allotting a government plot of land worth several crores rupees (billions) to AJL for INR 59 lakh. Then Chief Minister, Hooda, was also the chairman of HUDA, a government entity which re-allotted the plot to AJL in 2005 in violations of rules and against the advice of the HUDA officials. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's BJP government of Haryana transferred the case to CBI, and CBI filed the FIR in April 2016. CBI booked Hooda for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and misuse of official position by public servants. AJL, which also owns National Herald, is controlled by the Indian National Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi among others.
DLF land grab case is a case related to 50 acre land grab in 2013 in Amipur village of Haryana during the Congress' Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, for which Robert Vadra, Hooda and DLF are being investigated by the CBI. Hooda's generosity towards land sharks and builders caused huge losses to farmers and Haryana Government. Consequently, there are Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiries and court cases against him related to shady land deals. Those deals include the allotment of a highly subsidised land and change in land use license for his relatives and influential friends connected to Indian National Congress, such Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra. Jitesh Vadra made illegal gains of over INR50 crore from this land deal within few months in 2008. CBI has filed an 80,000 page long chargesheet in the court related to this case and Manesar land scam case.
The Rafale deal controversy is a political controversy in India related to the purchase of 36 Rafale multirole fighter aircraft for a price estimated at €7.87 billion by the Defence Ministry of India from France's Dassault Aviation. The origin of the deal lies in the Indian MMRCA competition, a multi-billion dollar contract to supply 126 multi-role combat aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF) with a transfer of technology.
Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra started from Kanyakumari and ended in Srinagar in January 2023. Bharat Jodo Yatra covered 4,080 kilometres. There are several parallels between the Congress's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' and ex-prime minister of India Chandra Shekhar's nearly 4,260 kilometres-long Bharat Yatra in 1983.