Will move SC, arrogant regime doesn’t want questions raised: Congress

Announcing that it will soon move the Supreme Court against the Gujarat High Court’s decision declining to stayRahul Gandhi’sconviction in a defamation case, the Congress described the HC order Friday as “highly disappointing, but not unexpected”.

Addressing a press conference, Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the “jurisprudence that the Courts… are evolving is unique” and “it has no precedent or parallel with any other judgement ever passed on the subject of defamation laws.”

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said, “The whole purpose of the ‘defamation’ case against Mr Rahul Gandhi was to disqualify him from Parliament.”

“Everything that followed is an attempt to justify the disqualification. Let me repeat what I had said earlier: In the 132 years the Indian Penal Code has been in force, there has been no case of slander (verbal defamation) where a court has imposed the maximum punishment of 2 years. That fact says all about the case and the judgement of the Trial Court. One day, justice will be delivered,” he said.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge said no Congress leader or worker is afraid of BJP’s “political conspiracy”. He said Gandhi has always fought for the truth and will continue to do so.

AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a Twitter post in Hindi, quoted ‘Samar shesh hai’ (the war is not over) by Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ to attack the Modi government.

Also read | In declining stay on Rahul plea against conviction, HC flags seriousness of offence, moral turpitude

“Rahul Gandhi is fighting the battle for truth and people’s interests against this arrogant regime. The arrogant regime wants that the questions related to people’s interests, which help improve their lives, should not be raised. The arrogant regime does not want questions to be asked on price rise, jobs, uplift of farmers, rights of women… The arrogant regime is trying every trick in the book to suppress the truth, it is adopting all means – ‘saam, daam, dand, bhed, chhal, kapat (money, power, punishment, discrimination, deceit)’ – to distract from questions related to the interests of the public,” she said, adding that Gandhi was ready to pay any price for raising questions.

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Singhvi alleged that the government was finding “newer and newer techniques” to throttle Gandhi’s voice because he speaks with facts and figures against its policies.

“It is consistent aggression that has compelled the government to find newer and newer techniques to throttle his voice. We are seeing this cycle of oppression and suppression play out once again. We will fight it. Gandhi will fight it,” he said.

On the defamation case, Singhvi said, “It has become clear now that jurisprudence has no bearing on what is happening in Gujarat. The simplest way to prove me wrong is to find a single case where a conviction has occurred in identical or similar circumstances. Neither of the Courts have relied on any such judgments.”

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“The judgment is unsustainable and erroneous. One such aspect is the finding on moral turpitude. It is a term of art effectively limited to heinous crimes like murder, rape etc or offences involving immorality. No judgement I have heard of equates defamation with moral turpitude. If civil defamation is not of moral turpitude, it cannot be called so in its criminal avatar,” he said.

The Congress asked all its state units to organise a one-day maun satyagraha (silent protest) before Mahatma Gandhi’s statues in all state headquarters on July 12.

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The units have been asked to involve all senior leaders, MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other elected representatives, leaders of frontal organisations, departments and cells.

— With Apurva Vishwanath

© The Indian Express (P) Ltd

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