Rahul Gandhi Case: Congress President Kharge says Rahul Gandhi was disqualified in ‘lightning speed’, while a Gujarat MP convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment did not face the same fate.
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Centre has ‘double standards’: Kharge
While referring to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Amreli MP Naranbhai Bikhabhai Kachhadia during a media confrontation, the congress president said that the centre is openly showing double standards. He went on to say that where on one side Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was served notice of Lok Sabha disqualification with a ‘lightning speed’, it is not so with some other members of the parliament.
Rahul Gandhi was sent a disqualification notice on the day following his conviction. The 52-year-old opposition leader was disqualified on March 24, after being convicted in a defamation case and being sentenced to a term of two years simple imprisonment by the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat.
‘Others have not been shown the iron fist’
While talking to the media, the congress president again brought up Amreli MP Kachhadia and how despite being sentenced to a three-year jail term, he was not served notice of disqualification in the same manner. Kachhadia’s conviction was later reversed by the Supreme Court.
Kharge while supporting his party member Gandhi went on to say that the Amreli MP was allowed to attend the sessions of the parliament while ‘a person who speaks the truth’ has been kept out of the parliament, since a day after his conviction.
‘The height of hypocrisy and double standards’: Congress President
While speaking to the media, Kharge in a heated statement said that what he was seeing was the height of the Modi Govrenment’s hypocrisy and double standards, adding that a BJP MP from Gujarat is given a three-year-long imprisonment by a local court, the sessions court and the high court, but no disqualification was served till 16 days.
He contrasted this scenario with the case of his party member Rahul Gandhi, who, in his words was disqualified from membership of the Lok Sabha ‘with a lightning speed’. He further added how is one getting relief under the Modi Regime while the other is getting punished.
Rahul Gandhi Defamation Case
The remarks by the Congress President were directly related to Rahul Gandhi’s conviction and subsequent disqualification from the membership of the lower house of the parliament. The Congress president seemed to be unsettled by the current state of events.
Rahul Gandhi was convicted in a defamation case relating to his remarks about the Modi Surname in 2019 during his election campaign in Karnataka. The particular comment in question was a question that he raised, ‘How come all thieves have Modi in their names?’ He was awarded a simple imprisonment jail term for a period of two years. His conviction was finalised on March 23, 2024.
Gandhi was disqualified on March 24, one day after his conviction in the case in which the opposition President Mallikarjun Kharge contrasted with another case in which an MP from the Bharatiya Janata Party was involved.
According to him, the Gujarat MP was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to a three-year jail term for the killing of a Dalit doctor, and was still allowed to attend house proceedings. He was not disqualified from membership for a period of 16 days after receiving the sentence.
Rahul Gandhi has appealed to a Sessions Court in Surat, which will be heard on April 13.
Read more: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge accuses centre of hypocrisy
