Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified by Parliament as a member of India’s Lok Sabha on March 23 after being convicted by a Surat court in a defamation case.
A notice issued by the Lok Sabha said, “Rahul Gandhi … is ineligible to be a member of the Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction,” reports the Hindustan Times.
The Lok Sabha session was adjourned an hour later. Congress termed this decision as political and blamed the ruling political party BJP.
Gandhi was convicted by a Surat court on Thursday in a defamation case and sentenced to two years in jail for making lewd remarks about Prime Minister Modi. However, the court granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days so that he could appeal to the higher court.
An application was filed in the court by BJP MLA Parneesh Modi for his alleged remarks.
This case of the year 2019 is connected with one of his comments regarding ‘Kaneet Modi’. Rahul Gandhi had given the statement that ‘How come all thieves have Modi as their last name? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi’.
Nirav Modi is a diamond merchant and is on the run from the country, Lalit Modi is the former Indian Premier League chief who was banned for life by the country’s cricket board. Rahul Gandhi’s stance is that his statement was meant to highlight corruption and not against any community.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign, Rahul Gandhi made this statement regarding people with the surname Modi at an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka. At that time, Congress President Rahul Gandhi targeted PM Modi and said that ‘Chowkidar is 100% thief.’
In the last Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi campaigned by calling himself the ‘Chowkidar’ of the country and the people.
It was about the Rafale deal. Rahul said in the rally, ‘You stole 30 thousand crore rupees and gave it to your friend Anil Ambani. You stole 100% of the money. Chowkidar is a thief, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi, Mallya, Anil Ambani and Narendra Modi. A band of thieves.’
After that, Rahul sarcastically said ‘I have a question, why are Modi, Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi in the names of all these thieves? We do not know how many more such Modis will come?’