Leaders of several opposition parties on Friday spoke up in support of Rahul Gandhi post his disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP due to his conviction in a criminal defamation case from 2019.
TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee called Rahul’s disqualification a ‘new low’ to India’s constitutional democracy.
“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,” she tweeted.
PDP chief and Former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti remarked that the Government of India is ‘clearly rattled’ by the Wayanad MP for emerging as a ‘powerful challenger’ pre-2024 elections.
“GOI is clearly rattled by RG for emerging as a powerful challenger pre-2024 elections. Since BJP can’t fight him politically, they are now subverting institutions because he refuses to do a Savarkar. The apprehensions he voiced in London are tragically being proven right,” she remarked.
Uddhav Thackeray, who heads the Shiv Sena (UBT) party, on Friday, dubbed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as “murder” of democracy and said this is the beginning of the end of “dictatorship”.
In a statement, Thackeray said it has become a crime to call a thief a thief, while those “looting” the country are out.
“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),” Thackeray said.
RJD MP Manoj Jha said that the BJP-led centre by doing this, has made Rahul Gandhi’s ‘democracy in danger’ remarks in the United Kingdom ‘true’.
CPIML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya highlighted the speed with which action was taken against Gandhi.
“The sentence against @RahulGandhi in the alleged Modi defamation case was announced yesterday and within a day he is now disqualified from the Lok Sabha! Nothing short of a surgical strike on democracy! Time for the entire opposition to rally against this unbridled emergency!” he said.
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.
BSP MP Danish MP termed Gandhi’s disqualification unfortunate, and said 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, he claimed.
He alleged that many BJP leaders have linked Muslims to terrorism, while criticising the disqualification.
“If such an issue becomes a yardstick to disqualify an MP, then filing defamation cases will become a means to strip lawmakers of their membership,” he said.
A court in Surat sentenced Rahul Gandhi to 2 years in jail in a defamation case on Thursday, filed on a complaint by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi for his alleged remark, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?”
“Shri Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 23 March, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” the Lok Sabha secretariat said in a notification issued on Friday.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that the party will not be ‘intimidated’ or ‘silenced’ by the decision to disqualify the Wayanad MP.
“We will fight this battle both legally and politically. We will not be intimidated or silenced. Instead of a JPC into the PM-linked Adani MahaMegaScam, @RahulGandhi stands disqualified. Indian Democracy Om Shanti,” Jairam Ramesh tweeted.
