The former Indian National Congress (INC) president Rahul Gandhi was stripped of his member of the Parliament (MP) post on Friday, March 24th, following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case. On Thursday, March 23rd, a Surat court convicted Gandhi in a defamation case and sentenced him to two-year imprisonment.
Incidentally, while addressing a public meeting in Karnataka in 2019, Gandhi accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being seen with Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, charged with financial fraud, and questioned how all fraudsters have a common surname, Modi. A defamation case was filed against him after that.
The Lok Sabha secretariat decided to disqualify Gandhi from the MP post on Friday after the verdict of the Surat court. The Lok Sabha Secretariat said in a statement that Gandhi has been disqualified from the MP post of Kerala’s Wayanad constituency under section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, alongside article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India.
Soon after Gandhi’s disqualification from the MP post, the INC started protesting. The INC accused India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of hatching a conspiracy to disqualify Gandhi as an MP.
The INC alleged that Gandhi had been stripped of his MP post for demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe allegations of financial irregularities against Gautam Adani, who is allegedly close to Modi.
Notably, since Hindenburg Research made allegations against Adani’s conglomerate for financial fraudulence, Congress has been accusing BJP of maintaining close ties with the Adani group.
Gandhi’s disqualification from the MP post, however, has bridged the gap among the opposition parties and brought them closer. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bandopadhyay and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren took to Twitter to decry Gandhi’s disqualification.
Former Union minister and INC leader Renuka Chaudhary has decided to file a defamation suit against Modi for comparing her to a negatively-portrayed character in the Hindu epic Ramayana. She said that if the system is fair, then she must get a similar sentence against Modi.
