Monday, March 27, 2023

MODI JAILS POLITICAL OPPONENT
Opposition disrupts Indian Parliament after Gandhi's ouster


The Canadian Press
Mon, March 27, 2023 



NEW DELHI (AP) — Members of opposition parties dressed in black disrupted India's Parliament on Monday and protested in the capital, New Delhi, after Rahul Gandhi, a key opposition leader and fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was expelled from the legislature last week.

Hundreds of supporters of Gandhi's Congress party demonstrated in the heart of New Delhi and dozens were detained by police. Lawmakers from 18 opposition parties also protested together outside Parliament, donning black clothes to symbolize mourning and waving posters that warned India's democracy is in danger.

Gandhi's expulsion on Friday came a day after a local court convicted him of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison for mocking Modi's surname in an election speech in 2019. The actions against Gandhi, the great-grandson of India's first prime minister, were widely denounced by opponents of Modi as assaults against democracy and free speech by a government seeking to quash dissent. His removal from Parliament also delivered a major blow to the Congress party ahead of national elections next year.

“The government wants to suppress the opposition and their voice,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Congress party.

Over the weekend, Gandhi said he is being targeted for raising questions about Modi's relationship to Gautam Adani, a coal tycoon who until recently was Asia's richest man.

Hindenburg Research, a U.S. financial research firm, accused the Adani Group in January of stock price manipulation and fraud running into billions of dollars. Since then, Gandhi has pushed for an investigation into Adani's sprawling businesses, whose market value has since plummeted by tens of billions of dollars. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party says he has no links to Adani.

The protesting opposition lawmakers backed Gandhi on Monday by renewing calls for a parliamentary probe into the Adani Group.

Gandhi said he was not bothered about losing his seat in Parliament. “My job is to defend the institutions of the country and the voice of people,” he said over the weekend.

A court in Modi’s home state of Gujarat convicted Gandhi last week over a 2019 speech in which he asked, “Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?” Gandhi then referred to three well-known and unrelated Modis: a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon, a cricket executive banned from the Indian Premier League tournament and the prime minister.

Under Indian law, a criminal conviction and prison sentence of two years or more are grounds for expulsion from Parliament. Gandhi was granted bail for 30 days to allow him to appeal the decision, which Gandhi says he will do.

Piyush Nagpal And Shonal Ganguly, The Associated Press

Indian opposition holds Gandhi-inspired protest calling Modi ‘a coward’

Story by Alisha Rahaman Sarkar • 


Members and supporters of India’s largest opposition party protested on Sunday against their leader’s disqualification from parliament in nationwide sit-ins inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.

India opposition leader Rahul Gandhi handed two-year prison sentence in ‘Modi surname’ defamation case   View on Watch

Rahul Gandhi, a senior member of the Congress party, lost his seat in the lower house after a court in Gujarat sentenced him to two years in prison over a 2019 joke about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname.

Mr Gandhi, 52, is part of the Gandhi political dynasty and one of the most high-profile opposition figures in India. His disqualification comes as a major blow just a year before general elections in which Mr Modi will seek a third term.

Senior Congress party leaders led the protest in New Delhi after being denied permission by the police, who said the request to protest was rejected due to law and order and traffic reasons.

Senior leader KC Venugopal said it has become a habit for the Modi government to disallow every opposition protest. “This will not deter us, our fight for truth against tyranny goes on,” he said.

General secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadras said: “India’s prime minister is a coward. He is arrogant. This country has a very old tradition of teaching a lesson to arrogant leaders.”

Mr Gandhi’s supporters, who oppose Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reacted strongly to his disqualification, calling it the “murder of democracy”


Police try to stop Congress supporters from carrying out a torch rally in New Delhi on Sunday (Reuters)© Provided by The Independent

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the sit-ins, or “satyagraha” was not just about the party or Rahul Gandhi but “about Indian democracy”.

In his first news conference since the conviction, Mr Gandhi said on Sunday he had been disqualified because Mr Modi was afraid about him raising questions about the prime minister’s connection with the chairman of Adani Group.

Gautam Adani is the founder and chair of the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate, and is said to be a close associate of Mr Modi.



India’s Congress party leaders take part in Sankalp Satyagraha at Raj Ghat in New Delhi (AFP via Getty Images)© Provided by The Independent

“I have been disqualified because the prime minister is scared of my next speech, he is scared of the next speech that is going to come on Adani,” Mr Gandhi said.

“So he is terrified about the next speech that is going to come, and they don’t want that speech to be in the parliament,” he said, referring to the prime minister.

Mr Gandhi and the other opposition party leaders have demanded a joint parliamentary committee investigation following a report by Hindenburg Research, a US financial research company, that accuses the Adani Group of stock-price manipulation and fraud running into billions of dollars. The Adani Group has denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Gandhi was convicted on Thursday in a case filed by a BJP member claiming the Congress party member had defamed the entire Modi community during his election speech in 2019.

“Why all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi in their names,” Gandhi allegedly said during the rally in the southern state of Karnataka. He was referring to fugitive business tycoon Nirav Modi and former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi.

The court granted him bail and suspended his jail sentence for 30 days, allowing him to appeal.

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