Former Member of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to two years of imprisonment by a Surat court on March 23. He was sentenced for associating people having the ‘Modi’ surname with thieves like ‘Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and others’. This morning a circular was released regarding his disqualification as a Lok Sabha member. Hard days are not yet over for the congress supremo as shadows of other defamation cases loom upon his head.
Apart from the ‘Modi’ surname case, Rahul has as many as five defamation cases registered against him in different states of India. For his ‘Modi’ surname remark another FIR was lodged in Patna in 2019. The same year he was granted bail by the Ahmedabad court in a case where he alleged that ‘A bank was involved in a currency exchange fraud during demonetisation. In another defamation case, a Mumbai court granted him bail relating to Gauri Lankesh’s slaying to “BJP-RSS ideology” in July 2019.
A similar case was registered at Guwahati where Rahul falsely claimed that the RSS banned him from attending the Barpeta temple in Assam in December 2015.
The gravest of all remains his remarks on RSS, as he called them ‘Murderers’ and alleged that they were involved in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation.
Rahul Gandhi in a public speech alleged that “RSS killed Mahatma Gandhi”. The trial in the case is on, where Rahul first plead not guilty. When RSS lawyers asked him to apologise for his baseless remarks he said he will not as he stand by each word he said and will face the trial.
In 2014, during a public rally in Bhilwandi Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi said, “RSS people killed Gandhi ji. They opposed Sardar Patel and Gandhi ji.” He accused RSS saying, their members had assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948.
Listening to his speech, Rajesh Kunte, a local worker of the RSS filed a case against him. Rahul subsequently said that he had been quoted out of context. In 2018, a court in Thane had framed charges against Gandhi in the case, but Rahul had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Earlier, Gandhi moved the Supreme Court in May 2015 seeking a stay on the Bombay High Court order dismissing his plea for quashing the defamation case.In July 2019, the apex court remarked against Gandhi for indulging in ‘collective denunciation’ against an organisation and said it was wrong and he must face trial if he does not express regret.
Meanwhile, the top court refused to grant Rahul an exemption from personal appearance before lower court in the defamation case.
“We have held it may be historically correct but the fact or the statement has to meet the test of public good. You can’t make collective denunciation,” a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman had said.
Lawyer Harin Raval, appearing for Rahul, had argued that whatever was said in the speech was on the basis of government records and on the basis of a decision of Punjab and Haryana High Court and he was not referring to RSS directly.
The bench after perusing the judgement of Punjab and Haryana High Court, said the decision only said that Nathuram Godse was an RSS worker and added that Godse killed Gandhi and RSS killed Gandhi are two different things. “You have gone a way ahead and you can’t make collective denunciation,” said the bench.
The Lawyer appearing from the RSS side, U R Lalit said in the Supreme Court that the matter could be put to an end if Rahul gave another clarificatory statement that he never intended to say that RSS was behind the assassination.
Lalit added that, such a statement was needed from Rahul, as in the last 60 years, whenever there was an election, Congress made an attempt to blame RSS for the killing of the Father of the Nation.
However, Rahul in front of the court said, “I stand by each and every word. I will never take my words back. I stood by it yesterday, I stand by it today and I will stand by it in future. I am ready to go to trial,”
As per media reports,senior lawyers and former congress leader Kapil Sibbal had told the apex court that, “RSS ke logon ne hatya ki’ is entirely different from ‘RSS had killed Mahatma Gandhi”.
Notably, the judgement, in this case, will be crucial for both congress and especially Rahul Gandhi at this stage. If the court acquits Rahul Gandhi of the defamation charges, his stand against the RSS will be vindicated and he will have a lot of ammunition to fire at the BJP in his speeches in future. And his conviction would mean further disqualification.
It is pertinent to mention that, 2014 public rally was not the only time when Rahul or his partymen accused RSS of killing Mahatma Gandhi. Arjun Singh, former Chief Minister of MP and a Congress stalwart who had to tender unconditional apology for his irresponsible charge. Then came Shri Sitaram Kesari, the President of the Congress Party, before Mrs Sonia Gandhi, took over from him. He too met the same fate and had to apologise.
It is true that Gandhiji was killed on January 30, 1948. It is also true that the Government suspected the role of the RSS in that brutal episode. Shri MS Golwalkar alias Shri Guruji, the then Sarsanghachalak, was arrested in the midnight between January 31 and February 1. That too under Article 302, as if Shri Guruji had personally gone to Delhi and fired at the Mahatma! But very shortly the Government regained its senses and the arrest was shown under preventive detention law.
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