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24-03-2023
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI/ AHMEDABAD: India’s parliament on Friday disqualified the leader of the main opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, a day after a court jailed him for two years in a defamation case loosely linked to the prime minister, parliament said in a statement.
Gandhi “stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha”, parliament said, referring to the lower house of parliament.
Congress members held protests in some parts of the country on Friday against Gandhi’s conviction and two-year-old jail sentence.
Congress party officials have described the judgment as politically motivated and blamed the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Yesterday, a court in western India found opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation on Thursday for a speech he made in 2019 in which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi, and sentenced him to two years in prison.
Gandhi was present at the court in Surat, a city in Gujarat, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state. He was given bail and the sentence was suspended for thirty days.
Gandhi would appeal against the verdict in a higher court, the president of his Congress party said on Twitter, calling Modi’s government “cowardly and dictatorial”.
