Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on April 5 accused the Centre of double standards, saying whereas it disqualified Rahul Gandhi with lightning pace, a Gujarat MP who was convicted in a legal case didn’t face the identical motion.
Mr. Kharge was referring to the BJP’s Amreli MP Naranbhai Bhikhabhai Kachhadia, who was awarded a three-year jail time period by a court docket. Mr. Kachhadia’s conviction was later quashed by the Supreme Court.
Mr. Gandhi was convicted by a decrease court docket in Gujarat’s Surat and sentenced to jail for 2 years on March 23 for a speech during which he linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s final identify with two fugitive businessmen, remarking how the “thieves” shared the identical final identify. A day later, he was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha.
Mr. Kharge stated the Gujarat MP was allowed to attend the Parliament however an individual who speaks the reality has been saved out of Parliament. “The top of the Modi authorities’s hypocrisy and double standards — a BJP MP from Gujarat is awarded a three-year imprisonment by a neighborhood court docket, periods court docket and excessive court docket however there was no disqualification until 16 days. “But Rahul Gandhi was disqualified with lightning speed,” Mr. Kharge stated in a tweet in Hindi.
He stated one can see who’s getting reduction and who’s getting punished beneath the Modi regime. Congress chief in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has additionally written to Speaker Om Birla in search of a dialogue on Mr. Gandhi’s disqualification.
A periods court docket in Surat on April 3 granted bail to Mr. Gandhi and can hear on April 13 his plea for a keep of his conviction within the 2019 legal defamation case.
