Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 24: Within hours after being disqualified as a Member of Parliament through an order of the Lok Sabha secretariat on Friday, the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said he was prepared to pay any price for fighting for the voice of India.
Earlier in the day, addressing a press conference, senior leader Abhishek Singhvi said the move was nothing but political vendetta on part of the BJP and that the Congress was planning to get a stay on his conviction so as to remove the basis of the disqualification.
Rahul Gandhi was unseated from the Lok Sabha within 24 hours of his conviction and sentencing of two years in jail by the Surat sessions court in the four-year old “Modi surname” case on Thursday. A notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat said he stood disqualified from the House from March 23, the day of his conviction. Rahul Gandhi has to now move a higher court and get his conviction stayed.
There was mayhem as soon as Rahul Gandhi came to the Lok Sabha on Friday morning with Congress leaders rushing to the well of the House, demanding that he be allowed to speak. The Lok Sabha was adjourned moments later.
The former Lok Sabha secretary PDT Acharya, however, felt that the action taken against Gandhi was “hasty.” He pointed out that “Defamation as a criminal offence is being done away with in many democratic countries: It is no longer an offence in the UK, USA or Sri Lanka. There is a growing volume of opinion in democratic societies in favour of decriminalising defamation. The Indian society being too much involved in acrimonious, adversarial politics is unable to speak aloud for abolishing this law. It is an irony that the descendants of the mother of democracy are too preoccupied to notice the impact of the criminalisation of defamation.”
Gandhi’s sister and the Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his disqualification. Tagging the Prime Minister’s Twitter handle, Priyanka said, “@narendramodi ji, your sycophants called the son of a martyred prime minister a traitor, Mir Jafar. One of your Chief Ministers questioned who his father is. Following the customs of Kashmiri Pandits, a son wears a turban after his father’s death, maintaining his family’s tradition.”
The move also seems to be bringing the otherwise warring opposition parties closer to each other. Opposition parties led by Congress marched towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan from nearby Vijay Chowk amid heavy security deployment, which was tasked with stopping the leaders from reaching their destination, with a huge “democracy in danger” banner. The march was soon dispersed as MPs were detained and taken away to nearby police stations in a bus. Police said they didn’t have permission for the march. The President had also not given them time for a meeting.
The parties, reiterating their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani-Hindenburg issue, are seeking a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu. They called the buzz around Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s sentencing in a 2019 criminal defamation case a ploy to distract from the Prime Minister’s alleged friendship with billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani, which they say has caused massive loss of public money kept in state-linked companies like LIC and SBI after Adani shares tanked following accusations of stock manipulation.
Congress units in several states have also launched simultaneous protests, accusing the Centre of political vendetta. Karnataka police detained Congress state president DK Shivakumar and other party leaders and workers who were protesting against the Surat Court verdict against Gandhi.
Congress has called it an excuse to silence Gandhi, who had written to the Lok Sabha Speaker requesting time to respond to allegations against him about his controversial London remarks. Congress chief and Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge accused the Centre of hounding opposition leaders by misusing central probe agencies. “This march is to save the constitution and democracy in the country,” he said.
Mr Gandhi attended Lok Sabha proceedings after a meeting of party MPs before the start of the House proceedings. Congress Parliamentary Party Chief Sonia Gandhi was also present during the meeting. The House was adjourned till 12 pm, seconds after convening amid ruckus over various issues, and Rahul Gandhi left Parliament soon after that.
Members of 12 opposition parties met in the office of Congress chief and Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge in the Parliament before the march. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal called the Surat court verdict “unfortunate”, and said the government was trying to stop him from speaking ever since he raised the Adani-Hindenburg issue.
“We have analysed the situation. The verdict was so unfortunate as far as Congress Party is concerned. We will do a solidarity march for Congress Party. We are seeking an appointment with the President. From day 1 onwards, when Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of Adani, the Government of India side came to stop him. They do not want Rahul Gandhi to speak in Parliament. They are varying all options to stop his voice,” he said. “But Rahul Gandhi and Congress party will speak. This issue is not because of Rahul Gandhi. It is because the country’s environment is like that. All opposition is getting suppressed. I am happy that parties are showing solidarity,” he added.
Several Opposition parties – despite their differences with the Congress – including Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, reacted sharply to the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a Member of the Parliament.
The West Bengal chief minister said Opposition leaders have become the prime target of the BJP in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “new India.” “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,” said Ms Banerjee.
The Delhi chief minister tore into the Central leadership over the court’s order on Rahul Gandhi and Lok Sabha’s swift move after it. “They want to create such an environment that there is only one party and only one leader left in the country. They want all the other leaders and parties to be finished. This is called dictatorship,” he said. “But today’s government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is more dangerous than the British rule. This is not just a Congress fight. This is a fight to save the country,” said the Delhi Chief Minister.
AAP leader and a minister in Mr Kejriwal’s cabinet Saurabh Bhardwaj questioned if the Opposition’s voice is suppressed, “who will raises the people’s issues?” “We have a lot of differences with the Congress. Whenever the Centre attacked us, Congress leaders even clapped. When the Lieutenant Governor attacked the Delhi Chief Minister, their leader Ajay Maken had clapped. If the Centre suppresses Opposition’s voice in a democracy, then who will raises the people’s issues? The Opposition had been suppressed in the Parliament many time. But now, dozens of cases are filed over petty issues. If this has to continue, then let the Prime Minister and BJP alone contest all elections with no opposition. That is dictatorship,” said AAP leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bhardwaj.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and the president of DMK MK Stalin said, “To disqualify Rahul Gandhi as an MP, before he could go for an appeal is nothing but snatching away the right of an elected Member of Parliament.”
“Only a trial court has given its verdict as of now. An appeal at the High Court is still on the cards. It is the Supreme Court that should pronounce the final verdict. It seems like the BJP was just waiting for this opportunity going by their act of disqualifying Rahul Gandhi within a day of the District Court’s verdict,” he added.
The former Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena Thackeray faction chief Uddhav Thackeray dubbed Gandhi’s disqualification as “murder” of democracy and said this is the beginning of the end of “dictatorship.” “This is the murder of democracy. All agencies are under pressure. This is the beginning of the end of the dictatorship…the battle only needs a direction (now),” Mr Thackeray said.
Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Manoj Jha called the disqualification “shameful and unfortunate”. “Nothing can be a bigger blot in the history of parliamentary democracy,” the MP said. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan termed Gandhi’s disqualification as a “violent attack on democracy.” Vijayan said the “hasty” disqualification of Gandhi was the “latest chapter” of the BJP assault on democracy.
CPI leader Binoy Viswam asked where India was going as a democracy. “Where is our democracy heading to? For a speech made in Kolar, case in Surat, that too after how many years? Anybody of their dislike can be booked for whatever reason they decide! Today it is Rahul Gandhi, tomorrow it can be you or me. Time to unite in defence of democracy,” he said.
Danish Ali, an MP from Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, claimed, “If MPs were to lose their membership on such matters of defamation, then 70 per cent of parliamentarians will lose their membership, most of them being from the BJP.”
Meanwhile, in a bid to counter the combined opposition’s campaign on threat to democracy, the BJP has decided to run a nationwide counter-campaign on Rahul Gandhi’s “hatred for OBCs.” Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi held a meeting with all OBC ministers, who will issue statements echoing party president JP Nadda’s charge that Gandhi insulted the Other Backward Classes by calling them thieves, in the Parliament.
Dharmendra Pradhan, Krishan Pal Gurjar, Prahlad Singh Patel, Rameswar Teli were among the top leaders present in the meeting. “By comparing OBC communities to thieves, Rahul Gandhi has shown a pathetic and casteist mindset. However, his latest tirade is not surprising. For the last many years, he has always reduced levels of political discourse,” JP Nadda had earlier tweeted.
The entire Other Backward Classes will avenge this insult in a democratic manner, the BJP president had said. “He repeatedly hurt the sentiments of the OBCs. The Surat court has convicted him for his objectionable comments against the community. But Rahul Gandhi and the Congress stuck to those remarks due to their arrogance,” Mr Nadda said.
Union Minister and BJP’s national general secretary Bhupender Yadav had also earlier today slammed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, saying using the term ‘thief’ for an entire community is a misuse of freedom of speech. “There’s a difference between criticism and abuse, they are different. He has abused the entire OBC community,” he said.
The Congress refuted Nadda’s allegation that Rahul Gandhi compared OBC communities to thieves, and accused the ruling party of defending the likes of fugitives Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, and indulging in “caste politics.”
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