Main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from sitting as an MP after being sentenced to two years in prison in a defamation case. Mr Gandhi, 52, a Member of Parliament for nearly two decades, was disqualified a day after a court in the western state of Gujarat convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail. The court granted him bail and suspended his jail sentence for 30 days, allowing him to appeal. The defamation case was linked to a 2019 election speech in which Mr Gandhi referred to “many thieves” having the same surname as the Prime Minister.In his first remarks to media since his conviction, the Congress party leader accused the government of plotting his expulsion from parliament to silence him after he raised questions over Mr Modi’s relationship with the industrialist Gautam Adani. This whole drama is being orchestrated to defend the Prime Minister,” Mr Gandhi said at a press conference in New Delhi.
Mr Modi is scared of my next speech on Adani. He is terrified and doesn’t want that speech in the Parliament. First the distraction and now the disqualification. I’m here defending the democratic voice of the Indian people. I will continue to do that. I am not scared of these threats, of disqualifications, of allegations, or prison sentences. They are used to everybody being scared of them.
“My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone,”
Rahul Gandhi said on in a press conference following his disqualification as an MP after conviction in defamation case.