© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, addresses the crowd at a public rally during the United March of India (Bharat Jodo Yatra), in Panipat, India, January 6. 2023. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/ File Photo
By Sumit Khanna and Shilpa Jamkhandikar
AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) – An Indian court found opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation on Thursday for a speech he made in 2019 in which he referred to thieves with the surname Modi, and sentenced him to two years in prison. .
Gandhi, a senior leader of the Congress Party and a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, will appeal the order in a higher court, his party said. The sentence was handed down by a court in the city of Surat, located in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The court found Rahul Gandhi’s comment defamatory,” said Ketan Reshamwala, a lawyer for whistleblower Purnesh Modi, a Gujarat lawmaker from the prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has been sentenced to two years in prison.
Gandhi was present at the Surat court, which immediately released him on bail and suspended the sentence for a month.
In the speech ahead of the last general election in 2019, Gandhi referred to the prime minister and two fugitive Indian businessmen, all surnamed Modi, while speaking of alleged high-level corruption in the country.
On Thursday, Gandhi told the court that his comment was not against any community.
Gandhi’s party said the case against him was brought by a “cowardly and dictatorial” BJP government because it was “exposing its dark deeds.”
“The Modi government is a victim of political bankruptcy,” Congress Speaker Mallikarjun Kharge said on Twitter. “We will appeal to the higher court.”
Gandhi, one of Modi’s main rivals ahead of the 2024 general election, won the support of Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and two of whose top leaders are in jail on what they call bogus charges.
“A conspiracy is being hatched to remove non-BJP leaders and parties by prosecuting them,” AAP chief and Delhi Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote on Twitter.
“We have differences with Congress, but it is not right to implicate Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case like this. It is the job of the public and the opposition to ask questions. We respect the court but we do not agree with the decision.”
The BJP said that no one was above the law.
“Indian law states that if an individual or an organization has been defamed with defamatory statements, scandalous comments, abuse or any defamatory comments, then he or she has the right to seek redress,” the BJP lawmaker told reporters. Ravi Shankar Prasad.
“But the Congress party has an objection to this, they want full freedom for Rahul Gandhi to utter abuse.”
Gandhi’s once-dominant Congress controls less than 10% of the elected seats in the lower house of parliament and lost heavily to the BJP in the last two general elections.
Modi remains India’s most popular politician by a substantial margin and is expected to score a third victory in the upcoming general election in 2024.