Is Rahul Gandhi the only leader who has made slanderous remarks against political rivals?

0
1365

Syed Khalique Ahmed

NEW DELHI—Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified from his Lok Sabha membership after being convicted by a Gujarat court in a 2019 defamation case.

Rahul had simply questioned why all the corrupt persons have the “Modi surname” while making an election speech in Karnataka.

Gandhi had passed the remarks in connection with diamond merchant Nirav Modi who escaped from the country following his involvement in the Punjab National Bank scam running into thousands of crores of rupees. In the same vein, Gandhi, however, said he did not intend to make comments about anybody personally, and hence no one should feel offended. Through his statements, Gandhi had drawn the attention of the people toward bank scams and the failure of the government to curb them and prevent the accused persons from escaping overseas.

But the lightning speed with which his disqualification process was completed by the Lok Sabha secretariat, indicates the country is fast heading towards autocracy.

The Lok Sabha officials went ahead with disqualification despite the Gujarat court having given Rahul Gandhi 30 days of time to challenge the verdict. The  defamation complaint was filed  by a BJP MLA Purnesh Modi resulted in Rahul Gandhi’s conviction and pronouncement of two years of jail term today.

Is Rahul Gandhi the only leader in the country who made a slanderous statement if what said in Karnataka political rally is considered a character assassination? Have other politicians have not made slanderous and abusive statements against communities and individual political leaders? Were FIRs registered against them and the matter taken to the court on the issue of defaming individuals and politicians?

Those who follow politics know that PM Narendra Modi, when he was chief minister of Gujarat, had made an unfair comment without taking the name of a Congress minister, saying his wife was once his “Rs. 50 crore girlfriend”. “Wah kya girlfriend hai. Apne kabhi dekha hai 50 crore ka girlfriend?” Modi had said while addressing an election rally in Gujarat in 2012. The media interpreted the potshot directed at the then Union Minister Shashi Tharoor.

In the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, Modi used the phrase “Didi O Didi” to refer to state chief minister Mamata Banerjee which was interpreted as ‘mocking’ the West Bengal CM and a general insult to the women. He used the phrase not once but at several political rallies.

Previously, Modi also used the term ‘Jersey cow’ for Sonia Gandhi and ‘hybrid bachchada’(calf) for Rahul Gandhi. Was this a decent language of a person as Chief Minister of a state? In response, Sonia only said, “Good! Let him abuse me as much as he wants!” He also used the term ‘corrupt No 1 for Rajiv Gandhi and ‘Ghengis Khans’ for Opposition leaders.

In an election in 2012 in Himachal Pradesh, he mocked then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Maun’(silent) Mohan Singh. Rahul Gandhi was  also taunted as “Pappu”(ignorant man) of politics by Modi.

During several political rallies after 2002 anti-Muslim riots of Gujarat, Modi contemptuously used the term “Hum Panch, Hamare Pachees(We five, We beget 25). That was interpreted that a Muslim marries four wives and they together beget 25 children and hence, they are responsible for population growth.

When the Muslims protested against the Citizenship Amendmenet Act (CAA) all over the country, Modi, at a public meeting at Dumka in Jharkhand, sarcastically said that those protesting the new law could be recognised by their clothes. The fact is that it were not only Muslims but a large number of people from several regions, including Assam, had joined the protest. He also described relief camps for Gujarat riot victims as “child producing camps”.

There are many other political leaders from BJP who had made highly abusive comments against the minority communities but no police FIRs filed against them, no arrest was made.

But why are Rahul Gandhi, other Congressmen, and leaders from Opposition parties being targeted by police and central agencies? Political analysts say that this is all being done to suppress the voice of the Opposition and throttle democracy.

While most of the Opposition leaders have fallen in line and given up opposing Modi and BJP, Rahul and other Congress leaders are the only ones who took on the establishment. After having forced the regional opposition parties to shut up, heat has been turned on Rahul Gandhi.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here