Opposition unites over Rahul Gandhi’s expulsion from Lok Sabha
Most of the major parties opposed to the BJP across the country today spoke out in one voice against the Lok Sabha’s disqualifying Rahul Gandhi from its membership today.
The disqualification came about on the basis of a lower court judgment in Surat yesterday (March 23), convicting the Wayanad MP of Congress in a defamation suit brought against him for insulting the surname ‘Modi’.
The incident referred to pertains to a speech on April 13, 2019 in Kolar in Karnataka, during the Lok Sabha election campaign, where he said: “How are the names of all these thieves ‘Modi, Modi, Modi’… Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi, and if you search a little more, aur bahut saare Modi niklenge (many more Modis will emerge).”
Interestingly, the court had also given Gandhi 30 days to appeal against the judgment in a higher court. Yet, the Lok Sabha Secretariat seemed to be in too much of a hurry—the action coming within 24 hours of the conviction—obviously being pushed by the majority party BJP to oust the firebrand MP, who has been a constant thorn in the BJP’s back.
As Rahul Gandhi’s fellow Lok Sabha MP from the Congress, Shashi Tharoor tweeted, “I’m stunned by this action and by its rapidity, within 24 hours of the court verdict and while an appeal was known to be in process. This is politics with the gloves off and it bodes ill for our democracy.”
In recent weeks, Rahul Gandhi had taken the lead, through press conferences and public speeches, in trying to unmask the close link between Narendra Modi and businessman Gautam Adani. This was following the scandal that broke out after the US-based company Hindenburg Research came out with a report of widespread stock market manipulation by the Adani Group.
Regarding the judgment, in a perfectly-reasoned tweet thread, well-known constitutional expert Gautam Bhatia said: “Boggled by this. Defamation law 101 is that references to a generic class of persons are not actionable unless an individual can show a direct reference to themselves. It’s one of the first things you learn in defamation law class.”
In the next tweet he gave an example: “If a man says “all lawyers are thieves”, I – a random lawyer – can’t file a case against him for defamation unless I can show it’s an imputation aimed at me.”
Tweets from some prominent Opposition leaders against Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha
