Ashish Ranjan
Rahul Gandhi Disqualification: The Congress party convened a strategy meeting this evening after suffering a significant setback when parliament disqualified its leader, Rahul Gandhi, a day after a court convicted him of defamation for remarks that many viewed as insulting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In attendance were prominent Congress leaders, including party leader Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and former Union Minister P Chidambaram.
In addition to Mr. Kharge and Mrs. Gandhi, the meeting was attended by Congress general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Rajiv Shukla, and Tariq Anwar, senior leaders Anand Sharma, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid, and Pawan Kumar Bansal, among others.
As of the date of his conviction, Mr. Gandhi is “disqualified from membership in the Lok Sabha,” the lower house of parliament announced earlier today.”I am willing to pay any price to protect the voice of India,” he tweeted in Hindi as his initial response to his disqualification.
A court in Surat sentenced the 52-year-old man to two years in prison on Thursday after finding him guilty of defamation in relation to a 2019 speech in which he referred to criminals as having the surname Modi.His remarks were perceived as an insult to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who went on to win the election by an overwhelming margin.
He is scheduled to appeal the verdict in a district court in Gujarat, the native state of Prime Minister Modi.Several Congress lawmakers and regional opposition party leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, MK Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, KCR, and Akhilesh Yadav, supported Mr. Gandhi and criticized the BJP government for its “dictatorship.”
Members of the government and other BJP leaders stated, however, that Mr. Gandhi’s remark was a slur against everyone with the surname Modi.”Rahul Gandhi is a habitual loose cannon who believes he can say anything without facing any repercussions,” said information minister Anurag Thakur. Ravi Shankar Prasad, a spokesman for the BJP, stated that the court had followed “proper legal procedure”
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Earlier today, Congress lawmakers gathered outside of parliament to oppose Mr. Gandhi’s conviction. Across the country, other party members also demonstrated against his disqualification.
