The first family mobilised its cadres and leaders to protest outside the ED office during interrogation of Sonia Gandhi

The entire politics of the Congress party, which has been in power for more than five decades, has been confined to the Nehru family, which has treated themselves as a monarchy, above the law and the Constitution of democratic India. This disregard for the country's constitution was in full display again when Congress stalwarts Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were back-to-back summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for interrogation in the National Herald case.

In both cases, the Rs first family' of the Congress mobilised its cadres, Members of Parliament, MLAs, and party office bearers to protest outside the office of the ED during the interrogation. The protest continued despite the imposition of Section 144. The Congress leaders left no stone unturned in portraying themselves as the trustees of the Nehru family.

Six and a half years ago, on December 19, 2015, when Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were to appear before the Patiala House Court in Delhi in the same case, they staged a march from the Congress Party office to the court.

Not surprisingly, people are asking why, despite being in the Opposition, the Congress never showed so much solidarity for the problems of people? The protests against the so-called persecution of the Gandhis, however, are not new. The foundation was laid 47 years ago-on June 12, 1975, to be precise-when the Allahabad High Court scrapped the then prime minister Indira Gandhi's election from Rae Bareli for the misuse of state machinery. After the court barred her from contesting elections for six years, the family puppets coined the slogan 'Indira is India and India is Indira.'

Whenever any action is taken against the Nehru family, the Congress makes fun of the process of law. Take the case of October 23, 1977, when Indira Gandhi was arrested over corruption charges. Or when she was arrested on December 19, 1978, and sent to the Tihar Jail on charges of breach of privilege and contempt of the House. Or when her son Sanjay Gandhi was sent to the Tihar Jail by the Supreme Court in 1979 on charges of forced sterilisation, interference in government work, the Maruti company controversy, and burning of the prints of the film KissaKursiKa during the Emergency, and pressurising the witnesses of the trial. In all these cases, the entire Congress took to the streets in defence of the accused Nehru family.

The questions to be asked are: When other senior Congress ministers and leaders are arrested, why doesn't the party stage any protest? Why is it only with the Nehru family?

The Congress Party and its leaders forget how, as Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi cooperated with the investigating agencies when he appeared before the Special Investigative Team in March 2010 in connection with the Gujarat riots cases. The head of this SIT and former CBI director R.K. Raghavanwrote in his autobiography, A Road Well Traveled, that in a day, Modi was asked more than 100 questions during his interrogation that lasted for about nine hours. During the investigation, when the interrogating officers wanted to take a lunch break, Modi refused to do so, saying that he would not take any breaks during the legal proceedings.

In situations like these, the basic difference between Modi and the Nehru family has to be understood. At that time, Modi, while addressing the media before going to the interrogation, had reiterated, "The Constitution of India, the law of India is supreme. As a citizen and chief minister, I am bound by the Constitution of India, by the law of India. No person can be above the law."

On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi, before his interrogation, was planning with his party colleagues as to how to remain in the limelight by protesting violently in the name of Satyagraha.

Amit Shah was arrested in 2010 while serving as the home minister of Gujarat, and was called for interrogation several times by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Even after getting bail from the Supreme Court, he was not allowed to go to Gujarat because of pressure from the Congress government.

Former Union minister and BharatiyaJanata Party national president MurliManohar Joshi, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti, and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal were also called for interrogation by the special CBI court on several occasions. In all these cases, neither the BJP questioned the CBI over questioning nor did it organise protests and demonstrations against the Congress government. Everyone fully cooperated with the administration in their respective investigations.

By compromising with criminals and the corrupt, the Congress also brought them up under its umbrella. For example, after the arrest of Indira Gandhi on December 20, 1978, Bhola Nath Pandey and Devendra Pandey, flying from Lucknow to Delhi at 5:45 pm, hijacked the Indian Airlines plane Boeing 737 with 132 passengers in it and made a landing in Varanasi. They demanded her release and the withdrawal of all the cases against her and her son Sanjay Gandhi..

After coming to power, the Congress withdrew all the cases against these two devoted followers who worshiped the Nehru family, and gave tickets to both of them as their reward, making them MLA and MP; this was deplorable politics by any reckoning.

The Congress did not stop with this. The Defamation Bill, 1988, was introduced by its government in the Lok Sabha on August 29 when the name of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi came up in the Bofors scam. A nationwide protest started after the Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 30, 1988; this forced him to withdraw the Bill.

The Nehru family has long since been pursuing their selfish interests by bypassing the Constitution to grab power. Imposition of Emergency and tampering with law and order machinery went with impunity in the Congress regime. It was not for nothing that the Supreme Court in 2013 had called the country's largest investigative agency a 'caged parrot'.

The Nehru family keeps confusing the public by adding the title Gandhi in their name. This is a well-thought-out strategy for political gains. Doing petty politics in the name of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, is an insult to his deeds.

In times like these, when the prince of the family, Rahul Gandhi, talks about democracy, nation, and the cultural heritage of India, he sounds ridiculous. Therefore, when someone like Rahul Gandhi vents his frustration against Prime Minister Modi, the people of India give two hoots because they are aware of the past and present of the family and its prince.

(The author is the vice-president of BJP in Bihar and a member of the Bihar Legislative Council. Views expressed are personal.)