Indian opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi has filed an appeal against his conviction and jail sentence in a criminal defamation case.
Gandhi, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main challenger in the 2024 polls, was ousted after a court sentenced him to two years in prison for defamation due to a comment made in a 2019 election speech.
The ouster dealt a huge blow to his Congress Party. National elections are due in India next year and Gandhi will not be allowed to stand unless his conviction is suspended or overturned.
Gandhi appeared in a court in the Surat city with his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other top Congress leaders on Monday, April 3, 2023, to file an appeal and was granted bail for the duration of his appeals. He was given 30 days’ bail to file an appeal when he was convicted last month.
Many Congress workers had gathered outside the court in support of Gandhi, holding banners with the words “save democracy” on them.
A man who shares the Prime Minister’s surname, which is common in his home state of Gujarat, accused Gandhi of defamation over a 2019 speech in which he asked, “Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?”
Gandhi then referred to three well-known, and unrelated Modis, in the speech: a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon, a cricket executive banned from the Indian Premier League, and the prime minister.
The petitioner who filed the case is a member of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat, but is not related to the Prime Minister or the other two Modis Gandhi mentioned in his speech.
Gandhi was convicted on March 23, 2023 and expelled from Parliament the next day. This triggered opposition lawmakers to rally to his defense and call his expulsion a new low for India’s constitutional democracy. Gandhi was given bail for 30 days.
Under Indian law, a criminal conviction with a prison sentence of two years or more is grounds for expulsion from Parliament. If Gandhi’s conviction is not suspended or overturned by a higher court, he could face prison and will likely not be able to contest national elections in 2024.
The prosecution of Gandhi was widely condemned by opponents of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi as the latest assaults against democracy and free speech by a ruling government seeking to crush dissent. The speed of his removal from Parliament shocked political circles in India.
Court Schedules Hearing For Next Week
The court set the next hearing for April 13, 2023. A legal website reported that Gandhi’s appeal was accompanied by two applications; one to suspend his sentence, or secure bail, and the other to suspend his conviction.
A decision in his favour in the second application could lead to his lawmaker status being reinstated, the website noted.
Gandhi’s family, starting with his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, has produced three Prime Ministers for India. Two of them; Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, Indira Gandhi, and father, Rajiv Gandhi, were assassinated.
Even though Gandhi is projected to be the main challenger to the Modi government, his Indian National Congress party has suffered humiliating defeats in the last two general elections.
In a bid to woo voters, Gandhi has railed against Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party in recent months, accusing them of corruption and of tarnishing India’s democratic credentials.
Modi’s critics claim that India’s democracy, the world’s largest with nearly 1.4 billion people, has been in retreat since he first came to power in 2014.
They accuse his populist government of pursuing a Hindu nationalist agenda, a charge his administration has denied. Modi’s government says its policies benefit all Indians.
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