Convicted for defamation. Disqualified from Lok Sabha. Facing imminent eviction. Can Rahul Gandhi rise from the ashes to challenge Prime Minister Modi next year?
Sunjoy Hans
Every cloud has a silver lining. The darkest hour is just before the dawn. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his supporters within his party and outside it must be desperately counting on the veracity of such time-tested, positive sayings at the moment.
Barely two months have passed since the Gandhi scion traversed the length of India, covering more than 4,000 kilometres over a period of 150-days during his much-publicised Bharat Jodo Yatra, a so-called mass movement held by the grand old party to unite the country against what they call ‘divisive forces’ – and the 52-year-old de facto boss of Indian National Congress finds himself served with a notice to vacate his Tughlaq lane government bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi.
Of course, a lot happened during the intervening period.
Rahul made a 10-day trip to the United Kingdom on February 28 and ranted there publicly – most notably at Cambridge University and Chatham House (a British think tank) – about how the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and a “fascist” RSS were undermining India’s democracy by subverting its democratic institutions and processes.
He also used the Hindenburg Research report on billionaire businessman Gautam Adani to unleash a direct attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Parliament. During his Lok Sabha speech in early February, Rahul accused the Prime Minister of being too cosy with Adani and facilitating the meteoric rise of the Adani Group across multiple sectors.
Rahul did not receive the eviction notice because of what he said in the United Kingdom or how he lashed out at Prime Minister Modi in the Lok Sabha. He received it because he was disqualified as an MP after being convicted by the Surat district court in Gujarat in a criminal defamation case over something that he had said nearly four years ago. During a rally in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 general elections, Rahul had taken the name of the nation’s Prime Minister and two fugitive businessmen in the same breath on the basis of their surname.
“Why do all of them — all these thieves — have Modi Modi Modi in their names? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. And if we search a little more, several more of such Modis will come out,” he had said on April 13. Within three days after that, former Gujarat minister and BJP MLA Purnesh Modi had lodged a complaint against Rahul saying that his remark had defamed the entire ‘Modi community’.
After the case was filed, it had taken well over two years for Rahul to appear in the Surat court and record his statement in person. In March last year, the complainant had himself sought – and was granted – a stay order from the High Court on the trial’s proceedings. However, within a few days after Rahul launched his diatribe against the Prime Minister in the Parliament, Purnesh returned to the High Court with a plea to vacate the stay order. And that was how the defamation trial resumed.
All actions have consequences. Direct or indirect. Sooner or later.
Rahul’s defence counsel submitted before the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) of Surat court that Purnesh did not have locus standi to claim defamation as the target of the Congress leader’s remarks was Prime Minister Modi. The lawyer contended that Purnesh had no right to complain as the allegations were not against any particular caste or community and there was not even any exclusive association of people with Modi surname. Pointing out that Rahul was a resident of Delhi, the defence had also stated that it was mandatory for a magistrate to postpone the issue of process against an accused person residing outside their territorial jurisdiction – in this case, Surat – until they concluded an inquiry into the charges.
Yet CJM H.H. Varma pronounced Rahul guilty and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment for criminal defamation under Sections 499 and 500, Indian Penal Code. And a day after being convicted, the senior Congress leader was disqualified from Lok Sabha membership and then came the eviction notice. The very fact that CJM Varma suspended Rahul’s sentence for 30 days and granted him bail in order for him to appeal against its verdict shows that democracy is alive and well in India.
Now if an appellate court stays his conviction and sentence on grounds of the arguments put forward by his defence counsel (and other legal experts advocating in his favour nationwide), Rahul’s disqualification from Lok Sabha will cease to be in effect and there will be no need for him to move out of his Tughlaq lane bungalow in a few weeks either.
There is no telling how things will pan out on this front in the coming days, but both Rahul and his party can take heart from the response that they have received from all sides – both within and without – amid their crisis.
For the first time, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav – who had consistently maintained his distance from the grand old party and ruled out any alliance with Congress – expressed solidarity with Rahul. The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said the BJP was getting opposition leaders entangled in minor cases as the party was afraid of the power of the opposition.
“Defamation of the country, public defamation, defamation of harmony, defamation of the constitution, defamation of the economy. Do not know how many types of defamation cases should be filed against the BJP. The BJP, which secures its political future by implicating the opposition in minor cases, is scared of the power of the opposition,” he stated.
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury echoed the same sentiments on his Twitter handle.
“It’s condemnable that the BJP is now using the criminal defamation route to target opposition leaders and disqualify them as done with @RahulGandhi now. This comes on top of the gross misuse of ED/CBI against the opposition,” he tweeted before calling on the nation to “resist and defeat such authoritarian assaults”.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned Rahul’s disqualification from Lok Sabha as an attempt by the Sangh Parivar forces to silence dissent and criticism. “The intolerance towards criticism is a threat to democracy and the action taken against Gandhi must be seen in that light and all democracy-loving people should come forward to oppose this,” he said.
In Maharashtra, opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) slammed the circumstances surrounding Rahul as a murder of democracy. MVA president and Shiva Sena-UBT boss Uddhav Thackeray said: The thieves and scamsters are running around freely while Rahul Gandhi has been punished. This is a blatant murder of democracy. All institutions are under pressure. It spells the beginning of the end of autocracy, and the fight needs a new direction.”
MVA chairman and NCP President Sharad Pawar added: “I deplore this new trend in our political landscape which should concern everyone in today’s scenario. I express my serious concerns at the attempt to curtail fundamental rights, freedom of speech, and democratic expressions in the country. The repeated attempts to suppress the voices of political parties, leaders and citizens of India is a matter of grave concern.”
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told the press that Rahul’s disqualification as “a cowardly act and the work of a scared government”. The Aam Aadmi Party leader, who has two of his ministers behind bars over corruption charges, called on all Indians to come together and save democracy in their country.
JD-U leader and Bihar Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary called Gandhi’s disqualification a dangerous trend in the country. “We are surprised and shocked that a big leader like Rahul Gandhi was convicted by a CJM of Surat on Thursday and on the very next day, he was disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha,” he said.
JD-U national president Lalan Singh went so far as to claim that the country is facing an “emergency-like” situation.
Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) President K. Chandrasekhar Rao went even further as he condemned the development.
“Today is black day in the history of Indian democracy … It is highly reproachable that the Modi government is not only abusing constitutional institutions but also using the highest democratic platform – the Parliament for its nefarious activities … Modi’s regime overshadowed the Emergency. Harassment of opposition leaders has become a routine,” said the leader, popularly known as KCR.
Even West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee, who had recently met with Akhilesh Yadav in Kolkata where the two leaders had jointly agreed to keep away from the Grand Old Party, tweeted: “In PM Modi’s New India, Opposition leaders have become the prime target of BJP! While BJP leaders with criminal antecedents are inducted into the cabinet, Opposition leaders are disqualified for their speeches. Today, we have witnessed a new low for our constitutional democracy.”
Some political analysts are of the view that this common response across party lines to Rahul’s disqualification markedly enhances the prospects of a united Opposition front against the BJP in 2024. That’s because even those parties that were averse to forming any sort of alliance with Congress – such as BRS, TMC and AAP (who together have four state governments) – spoke out in his favour over the issue. Rahul himself thanked all the opposition parties that stood up against his conviction and disqualification.
However, most political pundits have pointed out that mere statements of support from opposition do not mean that they are any more open to joining hands with Congress for the 2024 battle than they were before. Therefore, they add, Congress must use the current wave of support it has to systematically reach out to opposition leaders and optimise the chances of building a united front with them.
However, that is much easier said than done, given the vast ideological differences between Congress and other opposition parties.
The recent decision of Uddhav-led Shiva Sena (UBT) to skip the latest Opposition meet – convened by the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Congress President, Mallikarjun Kharge – over Rahul’s controversial remarks on Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar offers a glaring example.
The Congress leader’s remarks came a day after Uddhav – who had already announced his support for Rahul – urged him “to refrain from” targeting Veer Savarkar. “I am publicly appealing to Rahul Gandhi… You are doing a great job, fighting for the country. But, Savarkar is our icon… We shall not tolerate any insults to him,” Thackeray had advised the Congress leader while addressing a rally in Nasik, Maharashtra.
There is no denying that the legal and legislative action against Rahul has also galvanised the Congress party cadre across the country like never before. This is more than evident from the fiery protests that Congress legislators are waging in black clothes across the country – shouting slogans from inside the legislative assemblies of various states, to outside the premises of the Parliament, not to mention the Satyagraha before Mahatma Gandhi’s Samadhi at Rajghat despite being denied permission by the police to do it there.
None of this, though, has put the ruling BJP on the backfoot. If anything, the saffron party is playing this on the front foot – with the OBC bat. After holding a meeting with all of its 28 ministers from the OBC community, the BJP has already zeroed in on a master plan to corner Rahul over his “Modi surname” remark.
Former union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “Rahul has insulted the entire OBC community and not only Modi surname. Modi is a community not just a surname. Rahul has a right to criticise but not abuse. If Rahul says that he speaks in public with full understanding, then it is clear that he has intentionally insulted the OBCs. The BJP will hold nationwide campaign against Rahul Gandhi for insulting OBCs.”
Many political experts reckon that campaigning against Rahul over his “Modi surname” remarks will lend BJP an edge in all states that have OBC leaders, whether it be Akhilesh Yadav, Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel, former chief minister and RLD leader Lalu Yadav, Deputy CM of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav, and Rajasthan chief minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot.
Unlike Congress, the BJP does not suffer from internecine fights or ideological differences with its allies. Led by Prime Minister Modi, the party does not have the problem of multiple scams tainting its image, as Congress had in the years leading up to the 2014 general elections. There is nothing concrete to substantiate opposition allegations that the ruling party is undermining democracy or engaging in vendetta politics.
Over and above that is the unprecedented rate of all-round development that Indians are seeing under a strong leader who has been taking all steps necessary to improve their living standards while steadily elevating their nation’s standing in the international community.
Rahul Gandhi and the Congress will need a perfect mix of smart moves and good luck over a sustained period of time to even hope for a chance of giving Prime Minister Modi and a well-oiled BJP juggernaut a run for their money in 2024.
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