New Delhi:
Congress’s Rahul Gandhi was given a two-year jail term today by a court in Gujarat in a defamation case over his remark on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname. The party said attempts to “silence” Mr Gandhi will not help, “we will fight the cases. Here’s your 10-Point cheatsheet in this big story:Targetting PM Modi over his last name – which he shares with fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi — Rahul Gandhi had apparently said, “How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?” The case was filed by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi.Rahul Gandhi had been granted bail and his sentence suspended for 30 days to allow him time to appeal. The court’s order puts him at risk of disqualification as a member of parliament under the law.Top sources in the Congress have conceded the point and said Mr Gandhi will not be attending parliament till his appeal is heard.Mr Gandhi, who was in Surat, has returned to Delhi. In his first reaction to the verdict, he quoted Mahatma Gandhi. “My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God, non-violence the means to get it,” he posted on Twitter. The Congress has questioned how the court can give such harsh punishment after a 20-minute hearing.After the verdict, in a rare show of support, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: “A conspiracy is being hatched to eliminate non-BJP leaders… We have differences with the Congress, but it is not right to implicate Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case like this… We respect the court but disagree with the decision”.”Get the opposition leaders raided by ED, IT, CBI, even if things don’t work, get baseless cases done in different cities under a heinous conspiracy so that no core stone is left unturned in headline management. This is a matter of grave concern for the Constitution, democracy, politics and the country,” tweeted RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, without naming Mr Gandhi.The other allies of Congress — Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena faction, are yet to comment. DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has spoken to Rahul Gandhi to express support.Mr Gandhi’s lawyer has argued the court proceedings were “flawed” from the beginning. He argued that P Modi and not MLA Purnesh Modi, should have been the complainant in the case because Mr Gandhi had targeted him in his speech.The BJP been demanding for long that Mr Gandhi be expelled from parliament. Initially it was over his comments on the Hindenburg-Adani issue. Later they demanded that he be ousted over his comments at the Cambridge University, which, the party contended was anti-national.Last week, Delhi police had questioned Mr Gandhi at his home over his remark during the Bharat Jodo Yatra that “women are still being sexually assaulted”.Post a comment
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