India: Court Rejects Rahul Gandhi's Plea

Facts

• On Friday, a judge in the High Court of the Indian state of Gujarat dismissed opposition leader Rahul Gandhi's appeal to stay his conviction for defamation, crushing his hopes of attending the upcoming session of parliament.¹
• Justice Hemant Prachchhak argued that Gandhi failed to provide a reasonable ground to have his conviction suspended, an order he stressed is an exemption to be granted in rare cases only.²
• This case dates back to April 2019, when Gandhi compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fugitive criminals by rhetorically stressing that "all thieves" have "the surname Modi" during an election rally — prompting a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader named Purnesh Modi to file a private defamation complaint against him.³
• Gandhi was sentenced to two years in jail in March, automatically losing his seat in parliament due to a Supreme Court order stating that any lawmaker convicted of a crime and sentenced to at least two years in jail is disqualified with immediate effect. His arrest has been put on hold until he has utilized all legal appeals.⁴
• Later on Friday, the Gandhi-led Congress party announced that it will move the Supreme Court while pointing out that the two-year sentence — the maximum punishment for slander in the Indian Penal Code — had never been handed out before.⁵
• If his conviction and two-year sentence are not overturned by a court, Gandhi — the main challenger of Prime Minister Modi in the 2024 national polls — risks losing his eligibility for the next eight years.⁶

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²Al Jazeera, ³The Indian Express, ⁴BBC News, ⁵The Hindu, and ⁶Associated Press.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by New York Times. The case against Prime Minister Modi's top opponent is, without question, politically motivated. The ruling government — headed by Modi — has prosecuted several politicians, none of whom have been members of the BJP. Modi and his accomplices are eradicating dissent in journalism and government, paving the way for an indefinite period of illegitimate one-party rule. However, the law will catch up with these machinations sooner rather than later.
• Narrative B, as provided by India News - India TV. No one is above the law, nor is anyone able to dodge due judicial process for scurrilous statements, scandalous comments, or defamatory remarks. Just because India is a democracy doesn't mean citizens are entitled to throw inflammatory abuses at anyone. The sentence sets a precedent that insulting people for their caste or targeting them over their surname is inexcusable. Rahul Gandhi must learn a lesson from his conviction and choose his words more carefully in the future.

Predictions