INDIAN opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday was convicted of criminal defamation and sentenced to two years in prison by a court in the western Gujarat state, over remarks he made in 2019 using Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname.
The sentence was suspended for 30 days, allowing Gandhi to remain free while he appeals the verdict. Supporters rushed to his defense, with the president of Gandhi’s Indian National Congress party suggesting the ruling might have been politically motivated.
The case stemmed from a complaint filed by Purnesh Modi, a leader in Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in his home state of Gujarat. During a 2019 election rally, Gandhi asked why “all thieves have Modi as a common surname,” according to media accounts. Although in context he appeared to be referring to specific people, including fugitive diamond tycoon Nirav Modi, the complainant argued that he had defamed all Modis.
Gandhi, who was present in the court in Surat, Gujarat, when the verdict was handed down, later issued a cryptic tweet. “My religion is based on truth and nonviolence,” he wrote, quoting Mahatma Gandhi. “Truth is my God, nonviolence the means to get it.”
His supporters expressed solidarity with him. Congress party President Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted in Hindi that the “coward, dictator BJP government is rattled by Mr. Rahul Gandhi and the opposition because we are exposing their dark deeds,” referring to demands for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the crisis that engulfed conglomerate Adani.
As shares of Adani companies plunged following U.S. short-seller Hindenburg’s allegations in late January of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud,” the Congress party and other opposition players attacked the government, and Modi specifically, over allegedly cozy ties with the group and its billionaire leader, Gautam Adani. Opposition lawmakers have disrupted proceedings of both houses of Parliament on multiple occasions, insisting on a formal probe.
“The Modi government has gone politically bankrupt and … slaps cases against political speeches,” Kharge said, although this particular case dates back years. “We will appeal” in the higher court, he added.
Prominent BJP members, on the other hand, hailed the decision.
“If you insult a whole surname like this, that whoever has a Modi surname is a thief, it is clearly defamatory,” senior BJP leader and former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after the ruling, pointing out that a similar case is ongoing against Gandhi in Bihar state, filed by BJP leader Sushil Modi. Gandhi is also on bail in that case.
“The Congress party wants Rahul Gandhi to have complete freedom [so that he] keeps on hurling abuses, but that can’t happen,” Prasad said. “We respect criticism but Rahul Gandhi doesn’t criticize, he insults the country … and its people.”
While the Congress party protested and the BJP cheered, the development could be seen as a setback for the opposition.
The Gandhi scion — great-grandson of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru — had recently completed a highly publicized Bharat Jodo Yatra or “Unite India March,” walking 3,570 kilometers over 150 days to connect with the public. Many saw this as part of a strategy to position him as a future prime minister.
Now his hopes rest on a higher court striking down the verdict so that he can avoid possible disqualification as a member of parliament.
