{"id":18336,"date":"2023-08-04T17:58:39","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T12:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=18336"},"modified":"2023-08-04T17:58:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T12:58:39","slug":"indian-court-releases-rahul-gandhi-paving-way-for-his-parliamentary-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/world\/indian-court-releases-rahul-gandhi-paving-way-for-his-parliamentary-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian court releases Rahul Gandhi, paving way for his parliamentary comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a major relief to the top Indian politician from the jury, Supreme Court suspended the two years sentence of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi for defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a decision which could clear the way for the former legislator to stage a comeback in the country’s parliament.<\/p>\n

“No reason has been given by [the] trial judge for imposing the maximum sentence,” Justice B R Gavai said in his ruling. “The order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication.”<\/p>\n

Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to two years’ for comments he made in 2019 that a court ruled, insulting to Modi and those sharing his last name.<\/p>\n

Anyone sentenced to a custodial term of two years or more is ineligible to sit in India’s parliament, and the initial verdict forced Gandhi’s expulsion from the body in March.<\/p>\n

His conviction stemmed from a remark made during the 2019 election campaign when he asked why “all thieves have Modi as [their] common surname”, in a jibe at Modi.<\/p>\n

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In his 731-page submission to the Supreme Court, Gandhi said his speech was made “in the course of democratic political activity”.<\/p>\n

His sentence was “gravely detrimental to democratic free speech”, added the document, which his party provided to AFP.<\/p>\n

Modi\u00b4s government has been widely accused of using the defamation law to silence critics.<\/p>\n

Last month Gandhi submitted his plea to put a halt on his conviction however, it was rejected by the Gujarat High Court.<\/p>\n

The conviction is “just, proper and legal”, the court ruled, in a blow to the Congress leader quashing, for now, his hope of returning to parliament and contesting national elections due next year.<\/p>\n

“How come all thieves have the name Modi?,” Gandhi had asked in an election campaign speech, referring to two fugitive businessmen, both surnamed Modi.<\/p>\n

Gandhi, the scion of a dynasty that has given India three prime ministers, was sentenced to two years imprisonment, but the jail term was put on hold, and he was given bail.<\/p>\n

Gandhi also lost his parliamentary seat following the conviction since lawmakers sentenced to jail terms of two years or more are automatically disqualified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a major relief to the top Indian politician from the jury, Supreme Court suspended the two years sentence of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi for defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a decision which could clear the way for the former legislator to stage a comeback in the country’s parliament. “No reason has been given by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":18337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[3825,139],"class_list":["post-18336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-world","tag-narendra-modi","tag-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}