Why Rahul Gandhi Failed to Get Court Relief in ‘Modi’ Defamation Case

Why Rahul Gandhi Failed to Get Court Relief in ‘Modi’ Defamation Case

Now, after conviction in the defamation case, Rahul Gandhi is so terrified that he has stopped talking about Modi-Adani collusion in the financial fraud case.

By Rakesh Raman

As expected, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did not get relief in the Gujarat High Court where he had filed an appeal to stay his conviction in the “Modi” surname defamation case.

After hearing the arguments of both sides, the court on May 2 reserved its order and is expected to pronounce it in June after the summer vacation.

Although it is said that Congress has a slew of good lawyers who can argue Rahul Gandhi’s case properly in the court, none of them could save him in multiple court hearings in different courts.

As a result, the Gujarat High Court Bench of Justice Hemant Prachchhak refused to grant any interim relief to Rahul Gandhi. The case was assigned to Justice Prachchhak when another judge Justice Gita Gopi had recused herself from hearing the case.

Congress complains that the case against Rahul Gandhi is part of a political vendetta, as the Congress leader has been accusing prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi of a criminal collusion with oligarch Gautam Adani who is facing a series of financial fraud allegations.

GUJARAT FACTOR

It is alleged that in order to implicate Rahul Gandhi in a false case, the petitioner – a member of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – had filed his complaint in Gujarat, although Rahul Gandhi had made his remarks about “Modi” surname in Karnataka.

It is largely believed that the courts in Gujarat cannot dare to defy Modi’s diktats as Modi was the chief minister (CM) of Gujarat. According to a report by The Wire news service, Justice Hemant Prachchhak was one of the lawyers defending former BJP minister Maya Kodnani, an accused in the 2002 Gujarat riots case. In fact, Modi was also an accused in Gujarat riots.

The Wire has also reported that another judge Robin Paul Mogera, who was hearing Rahul Gandhi’s appeal in the Surat (Gujarat) Sessions Court in this defamation case, was home minister and BJP leader Amit Shah’s lawyer in the 2006 Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case. Amit Shah is a close associate of Modi.

Congress alleges that the Surat District Court’s Justice Harish Hasmukhbhai Verma who punished Rahul Gandhi with a two-year sentence in March was promoted suddenly in December 2022 before his judgment, although he was not getting promotion since 2015. 

[ VIDEO: Why Rahul Gandhi Failed to Get Court Relief in ‘Modi’ Defamation Case ]

Subsequently, this judge Verma hurriedly handled Rahul Gandhi’s case to convict him in the defamation case for making an innocuous statement about “Modi” surname. The surreptitious involvement of all these Gujarat judges in this defamation case cannot be a mere coincidence.

In his remarks, Rahul Gandhi had compared PM Modi with fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, saying “How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?”

He made this statement in a 2019 public rally that he addressed in Karnataka. But ignoring territorial jurisdiction, a random petitioner was allowed to file his petition against Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat where Modi was the chief minister.

According to reports, the case was filed against Rahul Gandhi by Modi’s party colleague Purnesh Modi who is a BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister. 

In his complaint, the BJP leader alleged that Rahul Gandhi defamed the entire Modi community with his remarks, although the petitioner is not directly affected by Rahul Gandhi’s statement.

Neither PM Modi nor any of the other Modis that Rahul Gandhi mentioned filed the petition against him. It is increasingly happening that some mercenary petitioners who are not directly involved in cases file petitions against people who need to be harassed and surprisingly courts accept such petitions.

Astonishingly, the Gujarat court convicted Rahul Gandhi to the maximum prison sentence in this case – which is two years and which served as a ground to disqualify him from parliament.

Although it is being projected as a court decision to disqualify Rahul Gandhi from parliament, we must understand that in all autocratic regimes that work under the garb of democratic systems, the rulers silently use complicit courts to impose their own decisions on opponents to suppress all kinds of dissent. 

Similar shady court trials happened in other autocratic countries such as Russia, Belarus, and Myanmar to imprison political opponents such as Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny in Russia, Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski in Belarus, and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.

WEAK RAHUL GANDHI

As India is also an autocratic nation, Rahul Gandhi should not be surprised if he is jailed in this defamation case or a subsequent case filed in the court through rogue petitioners and decided by pliant judges.

In order to make it appear like a normal case, the court had suspended the Congress leader’s prison sentence for 30 days allowing him to apply for bail. The suspension period expired on April 22. 

Congress said it is an attempt by the Modi regime to terrorize Rahul Gandhi who is questioning Modi on various issues. And it seems that as usual Rahul Gandhi – who is a weak man – is again terrorized.

Now, after conviction in the defamation case, Rahul Gandhi is so terrified that he has stopped talking about Modi-Adani collusion in the financial fraud case. Earlier, after the Modi regime’s hostile actions against Rahul Gandhi, he was so scared that he stopped questioning Modi and his government on issues such as Rafale corruption case, Pulwama terror attack, Gujarat riots case, Pegasus spyware scandal, and election frauds with electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Now once again frightened Rahul Gandhi has gone into hibernation and is silently waiting for the next court order about his conviction in the “Modi” defamation case.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He has also launched the “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” editorial section to cover the news, events, and other developments related to the 2024 election.