A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged that all tricks were played to implicate him and put him behind bars when he was Gujarat Chief Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah alleged that the CBI had put pressure on him to frame Modi in a fake encounter case when Congress was in office at the Centre.
On March 29, Union Home Minister Amit Shah revealed that central agencies were misused under the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) Rule against him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the 2002 Gujarat Riots while speaking at a function in Delhi.
Furthermore, he talked about the disqualification of former Congress MP Rahul Gandhi after his conviction in the ‘Modi’ surname defamation case and his tearing of the ordinance, proposing to reverse Supreme Court’s Lily Thomas judgement, during a press conference in 2013.
Amit Shah on misuse of CBI
Amit Shah said at the event, “I will tell you how misuse is done. I have faced it. Congress did not file a corruption case against it; I was accused in a fake encounter case. They used to tell me to take the name of Modi and I will be freed. In more than 90 per cent of questions, they (agencies) used to ask me to name Modi and then I will be freed. But I refused and was jailed,” Union Minister said.
Furthermore, Amit Shah said, “Despite this, BJP never raised a hue and cry and never resorted to protests wearing black kurta, dhoti and pagdi. An SIT was formed against Modi while he was the Chief Minister. It was Sonia Gandhi heading the Congress and Manmohan Singh was the PM. Several innocent police officers were framed.” He revealed that the Court observed, “the CBI has filed the case on political instructions and with the intention of political revenge,” before acquitting him in the case stating that still, BJP did not resort to protests.
Amit Shah on Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification
On March 24, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued the notification of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha after he was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment in the ‘Modi’ surname defamation case. Amit Shah claimed that Congress is spreading misconceptions over the issue.
On September 24, 2013, the UPA Government attempted to bring the amendment into effect as an Ordinance before the verdict in Congress ally and RJD supremo Lalu Yadav’s fodder scam case. However, Rahul Gandhi called the Ordinance “complete nonsense that should be torn up and thrown away,” and tore the Ordinance during the press conference. Thereafter, the UPA Government withdrew the Ordinance and the Bill.
Amit Shah said, “Law is clear on MP’s disqualification. Rahul Gandhi publicly tore the ordinance during Manmohan Singh’s tenure. No one dared to say anything to Rahul Gandhi then…SC order came when the Congress-led Government was in power in 2013. We do not want to make corrections in the Law over the matter.”
In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which deferred a sentenced representative’s conviction by 3 months to allow them to appeal before a higher court and prevent disqualification. Thereafter, the UPA Government introduced the Representation of the People (Second Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013 in an attempt to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision and attempted to bring the same into effect as an Ordinance which proposed that the convicted representatives would not be disqualified immediately after conviction.
Rahul Gandhi’s eviction
When asked about giving a few days’ extension to Rahul Gandhi before evicting him from the government accommodation, Amit Shah asked how it would have been beneficial.
Amit Shah questioned “for what special favour” to the idea of giving Rahul Gandhi a few days’ extension before his eviction. He said, “Why should the Lok Sabha Speaker defy the Supreme Court’s directions? Is it because he belongs to the Gandhi family?” Furthermore, he asked why Rahul Gandhi did not go to Court.
He stated that “this is what the law is, this is not vendetta politics.” He claimed that this is not about revenge politics as the government is following the Supreme Court of India’s judgement which was pronounced during the UPA Government’s tenure in 2013.
Amit Shah on Rahul Gandhi’s comments against Veer Savarkar
When asked about Rahul Gandhi’s comments against Veer Savarkar wherein he said, “My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi. Gandhi does not apologise to anyone,” while answering a question during a press conference on March 25 after being disqualified from Lok Sabha following his conviction in ‘Modi’ surname defamation case.
Amit Shah said, “If he did not want to apologise, then he should not have taken bail as well. Mahatma Gandhi did the same when the British jailed him,” claiming that Mahatma Gandhi refused to apologise and pay the penalty and Rahul Gandhi should have followed in his footsteps.
Slamming his “arrogance”, Shah asked why Rahul had not yet appealed for a stay on his conviction. “Where does this arrogance generate from? Lalu Prasad, J Jayalalithaa and Rashid Alvi were among 17 people who lost their memberships but no one created a ruckus. Why does the Gandhi family want a separate law for itself? The people of India need to decide if we need a separate law for one family.”
Furthermore, he claimed, “If Rahul Gandhi does not wish to apologise, then be it, but he should not use derogatory remarks for Savarkar.” He added that Veer Savarkar is one of the people who have suffered the most for India. He has sacrificed a lot for the country. He claimed that Savarkar was the only person who was sentenced to two life sentences for his struggle against the British.
He said, “He might not trust us, so he should listen to his grandmother’s (Indira Gandhi) speeches to see what she said on Savarkar. He will know after he reads it. Even his alliance partners are telling him Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar, everyone is advising him.”
Earlier, Prime Minister Modi talked about what Amit Shah referred to as a conspiracy under UPA to jail him. “All possible tricks were deployed to put me behind bars, by somehow implicating me. But the plot did not succeed and, thanks to people’s blessings, I came out of it stronger,” said PM Modi.
