Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party can put him in jail but it cannot stop him from representing the residents of Wayanad.
Gandhi was the MP from the constituency in Kerala but had lost his position a day after he was sentenced to two years in jail in a 2019 criminal defamation case by a Surat court on March 23. On April 3, the politician was granted bail in the case till April 13. The politician was also told to vacate the house allotted to him as a Lok Sabha MP.
“The MP, Member of Parliament is just a tag, it’s a position, it’s a post,” Gandhi said while addressing an event in Wayanad. “So the BJP can take away the tag, they can take away the house, they can put me in jail, but they cannot stop me from representing the people of Wayanad.”
Gandhi said that he will continue to raise issues that are important for the Wayanad.
“I have been fighting the BJP for quite some years and it surprises me that in so many years they have been able to understand their opponent,” the former Congress president said. “They do not understand that their opponent will not get intimidated. They think that by sending police to my place I will get scared.”
He added that the fight between the Congress and the BJP is that of two different visions of India.
“The BJP divides people, you make people fight, you threaten people, you abuse as much as you want,” Gandhi said. “I will keep uniting people, I will keep respecting every single community, every single religion, every single idea. You be as nasty as you want, I will continue to be as kind as I can even to you. Because this is a fight of two visions of India.”
On March 23, the Surat court had convicted Gandhi under Sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code. The former Wayanad MP had allegedly made the remarks at a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He was said to have asked: “Why all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi in their names?”
Nirav Modi is a fugitive businessman accused in the Punjab National Bank scam while Lalit Modi is former Indian Premier League chief who has been banned for life by the cricket governing body.
Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. According to Section 8(3) of the law, a legislator sentenced to jail for two years or more stands to be disqualified from the date of conviction till six years after serving time.
Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha will be revoked if a higher court stays his conviction.
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