A day after he was disqualified from the Lok Sabha following his conviction in a defamation case, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that democracy was under attack and that he was "not scared to ask questions about the relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Adani Group." Several senior leaders in the party alleged that Rahul Gandhi had been disqualified because he raised questions about Adani.
Criticising the Narendra Modi government, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi said that the voice of the people could not be suppressed and the questions raised by Rahul Gandhi would resonate across the country. Taking to Twitter on Saturday, Priyanka posted a video of the Parliament proceedings and wrote: "Rahul Gandhi is being attacked because of these questions. When the public servant elected by the people raised questions on their behalf, the Adani-servant conspired to suppress his voice." She added that the Modi government would have to be answerable to the people.
इन्हीं सवालों के लिए राहुल गांधी जी पर हमला किया जा रहा है। जनता द्वारा चुने हुए जनसेवक ने जनता की तरफ से सवाल पूछे तो अडानी-सेवक ने जनसेवक की आवाज दबाने की साजिशें रच डालीं।
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) March 25, 2023
लेकिन जनता की आवाज दबाई नहीं जा सकती। ये सवाल अब देश भर में गूंजेंगे और जवाब देना होगा। https://t.co/UsQvzgLO1n pic.twitter.com/GhDX4hpHp2
Senior Congress leader and MP Jairam Ramesh questioned how the case was fast-tracked nine days after Rahul Gandhi’s Adani speech in Parliament.
9 days after @RahulGandhi's Adani speech in LS on Feb 7th, the defamation case against him gets fast tracked by the complainant withdrawing his own stay in the HC on 16th Feb.
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) March 24, 2023
On 27th Feb arguments resume after 1 year.
17th March judgement reserved.
This is no coincidence.
Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal claimed the disqualification was part of a conspiracy to silence Rahul Gandhi who raised questions about Adani. He said, “From the day Rahul Gandhi ji raised questions about Adani, a conspiracy was initiated to silence his voice. They never allowed him to speak out, which is a clear case of an anti-democratic and dictatorial attitude by the BJP government.”
Rahul Gandhi was on Friday disqualified as a member of Lok Sabha a day after his conviction in the 2019 "Modi surname" defamation case. The Gandhi scion who represented the Wayanad parliamentary constituency of Kerala was disqualified under provisions of Article 102 (1) (e) of the Constitution read with Section 8 of Representation of the People's Act. Rahul was on Thursday sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in the case filed on a complaint by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi. Rahul held a press conference on Saturday afternoon at Congress headquarters in Delhi, flanked by two Congress CMs Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Bhagel. Both leaders belong to Other Backward Castes (OBC) and were ostensibly meant to rebut BJP’s charges that Rahul had hurt the sentiments of OBC communities with his remark on Modi.
Rahul hit out at BJP, saying that he was disqualified because BJP was terrified about his next speech in the Parliament on the relationship between Narendra Modi and Adani.
Meanwhile, 40 MPs from Congress and four other parties, detained by the Delhi Police in connection with the protest march from Parliament House on Friday, were released. According to the senior police official, the MPs were detained for violation of prohibitory orders.