Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday alleged that the BJP-led government wants to get Rahul Gandhi removed from Lok Sabha through disqualification as he speaks the truth and exposes it.
Kharge’s remarks came after a court in Surat sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail in a defamation case, filed on a complaint by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, for his alleged remark, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” The court also granted Gandhi bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court, his lawyer Babu Mangukiya said.
Speaking at the launch of a book on former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Kharge alleged that for a long time now agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Income Tax Department and the Vigilance Commission are being used to suppress the voice of Opposition leaders but now “attempts are being made by taking refuge under laws to silence everyone”.
He said Gandhi’s conviction in the defamation case will be appealed in a higher court. “They (government) want to get him ousted (from Lok Sabha). The person who speaks the truth and exposes you, you want to remove him through such means. Nobody gets two years jail for defamation, someone is given one year, six months, or apology is sought, but the provision for (disqualification) is two years and that is why they have applied it in complete,” Kharge said after he launched the book ‘Son of the Soil’ on Shastri.
“By shutting one person up, can you shut up 140 crore people. We will keep fighting, don’t think that by two years punishment, the Congress is finished, we will keep fighting. The Congress is alive and will remain so,” he said.
The Congress president said fugitives such as Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, who have fled the country with hundred of thousands of crores of rupees, are not being punished or caught, while action is being taken against Gandhi.
“When he (Gandhi) talks about it he is punished. I want to ask people who should be punished…When we raise such issues (of fugitives) in Parliament, ministers rise to shout ‘maafi maango, maafi maango’, why are they saying it in Rajya Sabha, he (Gandhi) is a member of the Lok Sabha,” Kharge said.
The government’s intention is that Parliament not be allowed to function, he said. “He is not there in Rajya Sabha but you are so scared of Rahul Gandhi that he is coming in your dreams. If Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to hand over the country’s assets to his friends then neither Rahul Gandhi will sit quietly nor Congress workers,” he said.