SC opens Lok Sabha door for Rahul Gandhi; Modi slur conviction stayed
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, August 4: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi may get to attend the proceedings of the Lok Sabha as early as Monday after the Supreme Court faulted the trial court for awarding the maximum punishment without listing plausible reasons. On the basis that the maximum punishment, endorsed by appellate and the high court, affected not just Gandhi but also the people who had elected from the Parliamentary constituency, the apex court stayed the conviction, which automatically restores his Lok Sabha membership.
The Lok Sabha secretariat had claimed on the automatic termination of the membership of Gandhi that the court order comes into effect immediately and needs no interpretation from the office of the Speaker. Applying same logic, Gandhi could be taking his second row extreme right position in the Opposition bench in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Gandhi was convicted by a Surat trial court on Modi slur by the Congress leader in an election speech made in Kolar in Karnataka in 2019 in which he had wondered why “all thieves have Modi surname”. The apex court, however, stressed that the remark was in bad taste, but didn’t agree with the maximum punishment awarded to him.
The Election Commission, meanwhile, had not gone ahead by calling for the byelection from the Wayanad parliamentary constituency in Kerala in the light that the affected MP had not exhausted his legal remedy. His lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued in the court that the Modi surname was not shared by a distinct class of people, and not all were aggrieved by the remark.
On his losing the membership of the Lok Sabha on account of conviction for two years jail term, Gandhi had vacated his Tughlaq Road residence, which had also been functioning as the war room of the Congress for years. The Supreme Court verdict is likely to give a major boost to Gandhi and the Congress as they seek to build a narrative against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
With Gandhi back in Parliament, the Congress is likely to go further aggressive against the government, and the prospects of the normal functioning of the two Houses may now see remote. Also, Gandhi is likely to further step up his attack on the prime minister amid the Congress seeking to corner the BJP-led government on the Manipur ethnic violence.
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