India’s top opposition leader Rahul Gandhi expelled from parliament after the verdict. The defamation conviction of Gandhi, which supporters say is politically motivated, also means he cannot run for any elections for the next six years.
The move by speaker Om Birla, an appointee and long standing member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, also means that Gandhi will be barred from contesting elections for the next six years. India is scheduled to go to polls next year in a crucial election that will determine whether Narendra Modi gets a third consecutive term as prime minister.
On Thursday, a court in Gujarat, Modi’s home state, convicted Gandhi of criminally defaming all those with the Modi last name for comments he made during the 2019 election campaign and sentenced him to two years in prison. While the sentence was suspended pending an appeal, it opened the way for Gandhi’s parliamentary expulsion.
Several members of Modi’s ruling party welcomed the speaker’s decision to disqualify Gandhi hailing it as the lawful punishment for what they describe as his derogatory remarks against all people belonging to the prime minister’s caste.Rather than an attack on Modi or corruption, BJP politicians have been portraying the remarks as “caste-ist” and insulting to India’s lower classes.
In the past few years, this provision has been used to disqualify opposition politicians as soon as they are found guilty of criminal offenses by lower courts in India. On Friday, 14 opposition parties approached the Supreme Court asking for it to urgently intervene and stop the government from misusing law enforcement agencies against political opponents.
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