India’s opposition suffered a significant blow on Friday when Congress Occasion chief Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from parliament after being convicted of defamation for insulting prime minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Gandhi, 52, was sentenced to jail for 2 years in Gujarat on Thursday over a speech in 2019 by which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi.
He’s anticipated to attraction the decision. “I’m combating for the voice of India, I’m able to pay any price,” he tweeted after his disqualification.
A parliament discover issued on Friday mentioned Mr Gandhi stands disqualified from membership of the decrease home from the date of his conviction, in compliance with the constitutional necessities.
Indian opposition members of parliament protest in New Delhi on Friday
(EPA)
This disqualification might function a significant setback to Mr Gandhi as some of the high-profile leaders of the opposition in India, which is because of maintain a normal election subsequent yr.
Senior Congress politician Jairam Ramesh has mentioned that the social gathering will reply to the disqualification “legally and politically”.
“We are going to struggle this battle each legally and politically. We is not going to be intimidated or silenced. As a substitute of a JPC [Joint Parliamentary Committee] into the PM-linked Adani MahaMegaScam, @RahulGandhi stands disqualified. Indian Democracy Om Shanti,” Mr Ramesh mentioned on Twitter on Friday, shortly after the parliament notification was printed.
“This can be a clear case of the anti-democratic dictatorship angle of the Bharatiya Janata Occasion authorities,” one other senior Congress determine KC Venugopal mentioned.
Congress social gathering staff have additionally known as for protests in Delhi and have been seen shouting slogans of “Lengthy dwell Rahul Gandhi” after the chief’s disqualification.
The Congress social gathering led a protest march together with a number of opposition leaders in central Delhi earlier on Friday.
A heavy police safety presence was seen on Vijay Chowk outdoors parliament as opposition leaders demonstrated in opposition to the conviction, and a big banner studying “democracy at risk” was additionally seen.
A protest banner in Kolkata on Friday
(EPA)
Mr Gandhi represents the southern Indian district of Wayanad in Kerala. He’s the son of the previous prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991, and is a part of a dynasty that has given India three prime ministers.
The once-dominant Congress controls lower than 10% of the elected seats in parliament’s decrease home and has been decimated by the BJP in two successive normal elections, most not too long ago in 2019 below Gandhi’s management.
Pradip Bhattacharya, a Congress social gathering politican from West Bengal, mentioned the BJP noticed Gandhi as a menace.
“The BJP is fearful in regards to the rise of Rahul Gandhi and he poses a direct menace to the Modi authorities,” he mentioned, including that protests would intensify.
The prison defamation case was introduced by one other man with the surname Modi – Purnesh Modi, a BJP politician.
“Why all of the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi of their names?” Mr Gandhi mentioned throughout a rally in Karnataka state in 2019 throughout an election marketing campaign.
Mr Gandhi was referring to fugitive enterprise tycoon Nirav Modi and former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi who’ve been discovered evading Indian authorities after being concerned in multi-billion greenback enterprise scams in opposition to the nation’s state banks.