Priyanka Gandhi, who confines herself mostly to campaigning in the family constituencies of Rae Bareilly and Amethi made a startling statement detaching her finances from that of her husband Robert Vadra. Today she responded to allegations made by a national daily that she acquired property with alleged illegal funds from her husband’s land deal related to his company Skylight Hospitality. Vadra’s company’s land deal with realty giant DLF is being investigated by the Haryana government. She alleges that the correspondent who filed the report didn’t seek her clarification. In the letter, worded very curtly, Gandhi makes some clarification negating the report.
Here’s what she says:
- Priyanka Gandhi had purchased the said 5 acres of land in Faridabad six years before the alleged DLF-Skylight Hospitality land deal took place.
- She bought the land for Rs 15 lakh on April 28, 2006.
- She sold the same land to the original owner of the land for Rs 80 lakh, four years later on February 17, 2010.
- All transaction was done through cheque.
- Answering the question where she got the initial Rs 15 lakh to buy the land, she says: “The source of funds for the aforesaid purchase was rental income of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from property inherited by her from her grandmother Indira Gandhi. The source of funds for this or any other property acquired by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has no relationship whatsoever with Shri Robert Vadra’s finances and/or Skylight Hospitality and no relationship whatsoever with DLF.”
Ms #PriyankaGandhi ‘s statement pic.twitter.com/CARCC4dgsw
— Supriya Bhardwaj (@Supriya23bh) April 27, 2017
The clarification, however, led to other questions regarding the deal. Twitterati used it’s grey cells to ask some pertinent questions relating to her letter. The fact that she sold off the land to the same owner at more than five times the initial rate in a span of four years has become major point of discussion on social media:
In other words, Priyanka Gandhi bought land at ‘collector rate’ of Rs 3 lakh/acre and sold at market rate of Rs 16 lakh/acre. Neat. https://t.co/KTrWS47zDH
— কাঞ্চন গুপ্ত (@KanchanGupta) April 27, 2017
Interesting that Priyanka Gandhi, by her own admission, bought the land at circle rate but sold at market rate ! https://t.co/GFCL0VD7KX
— Akhilesh Mishra (@amishra77) April 27, 2017
Another inspiring women entrepreneur story. https://t.co/Foa94jmF0w
— Arnab Ray (@greatbong) April 28, 2017
After “Khosla ka Ghosla” .. we bring to you “Gandhi ki Chaandi” pic.twitter.com/owVLyfxcMa
— No 1 Killed Bahubali (@moronhumor) April 28, 2017