Reacting to his disqualification as a member of the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he was fighting to restore the country’s voice and will pay any price to do so.
“I am fighting for the voice of India and am ready to pay any price (for it),” Mr. Gandhi tweeted in Hindi. His tweet followed his disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP earlier on Friday.
The disqualification came in the wake of Mr. Gandhi’s conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 defamation case on Thursday. The disqualified Congress MP was sentenced to two years in prison following his conviction for a remark using the surname ‘Modi’ at a campaign event for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in Karnataka.
In a blistering attack on the BJP, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday said Rahul Gandhi, the son of a martyred prime minister, was called ‘Mir Jafar’ and insults were hurled at his family but he would not bow down as he belongs to a family whose members have nurtured democracy by its blood.
Her attack came after the former Congress president and her brother was disqualified from Lok Sabha, a day after he was convicted by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case Thursday.
In a series of tweets, Priyanka Gandhi launched an all-out attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying in a tweet in Hindi, “Narendra Modi ji, your sycophants called the son of a martyred prime Minister a traitor, Mir Jafar. One of your Chief Minister raised questions as to who is the father of Rahul Gandhi? Following the custom of Kashmiri Pandits, a son wears ‘pagdi’ after his father’s death, maintaining his family’s tradition.”
“Insulting the whole family and the Kashmiri Pandit community, you asked in Parliament why we don’t keep the name Nehru. But no judge gave you a sentence of two years. Did not disqualify you from the Parliament,” she said.
Stepping up its attack on Rahul Gandhi over his democracy in danger remark in London, the BJP had on Tuesday dubbed him as the “present-day Mir Jafar of Indian polity” who went overseas seeking help from foreign forces to become a ‘nawab’ in India.
The Congress general secretary said Gandhi is a “true patriot” and has questioned Adani Group’s loot, raised questions on Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
This family raised the voice of the people of India and fought for the truth for generations, she said.
“The blood that runs in our veins has one specialty… it never bows down before a coward, power-hungry dictator like you and will never bow down. Do whatever you want,”she said hitting out at the prime minister.
The court in Surat sentenced Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail in the defamation case, filed on a complaint by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi for his alleged remark, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?”