Rahul Gandhi Held Guilty of Defamation. There Is More to It.

        -      RVR

 

Rahul Gandhi has made news again, in a way he only can. The prime ministerial hopeful of the Congress Party was adjudged guilty by a magistrate’s court in Surat for defamation and was handed a jail term of two years. As a result, he stands automatically disqualified from his current membership of the Lok Sabha.

 

The court held Rahul Gandhi guilty for the offending words he had spoken in Hindi before the public in Karnataka in 2019, which translate this way:

 

“I have a question. Why do all of them — all of these thieves — have Modi Modi Modi in their names? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. And if we search a bit more, many more such Modis will come out.”

 

Rahul had uttered those words chiefly targeting prime minister Narendra Modi. He could not say Narendra Modi was guilty of any specific financial misdeed or specific act of corruption, as a public servant. So he pronounced the names of two other persons who had “Modi” as part of their names and who had been widely accused of frauds or questionable financial deeds, and he added Narendra Modi’s name too in the same run of words, hoping to taint Narendra Modi easily that way.

 

If Rahul had said, “Like Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi is also a thief”, it would be up to Narendra Modi alone to take Rahul to court, while the other two Modi’s may not bother.  But Rahul had said, “Why do …. all these thieves have Modi Modi Modi in their names?  Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi. And if we search a bit more, many more such Modis will come out”.  This shows Rahul was looking at fraudsters as a body, and was finding that all of them bore a Modi name, for which he gave examples of three persons with a Modi surname. Rahul finally said that on a search one would find more fraudsters or thieves with Modi as part of their names.  These words opened the way for anyone with a Modi surname, and feeling aggrieved, to file a criminal defamation case in Surat – and someone like that did.

 

What would a common man feel when he hears those actual words of Rahul Gandhi? Without doubt, he gets a message that Modi’s are a large body of thieves, with examples of three Modi’s given by the speaker. Rahul will surely know that Modi is the name of a caste in Western India.  If you are a Modi, you will feel doubtless offended.

 

There are of course tens of thousands of persons with a Modi surname, belonging to the Modi caste.  These persons are normal good individuals, having nothing to do with questionable or dishonourable deeds associated with Nirav Modi or Lalit Modi.  Those good individuals will feel offended, when a slur is cast on Modi’s as a group.  The reason is: an average Indian will have a strong emotional attachment to his language, his religion, and his caste. From birth, he comes to know his language first, and his caste and religion next, and feels that they are a part of his being. So when some persons are publicly named and accused of dishonourable or fraudulent acts, with their names stressed to the effect of highlighting they belong to a caste group, every normal good person of that caste will feel insulted or defamed since the caste he holds dear in his heart comes under attack.  If a leader of the age-old Congress Party, whom that party wants as India's next prime minister, cannot grasp these things about people and their community seentiments, is he fit to head the Indian government and conduct its afairs internally and externally? If you are frightened for a moment at some prospect, you love your nation. 

 

To Rahul Gandhi’s delight, some lawyers have faulted the Surat court’s verdict.  They argue that Rahul had only said, “All thieves have a Modi name”, and not “All persons with a Modi name are thieves”.   Some of them contend that a proper legal procedure was not followed in the trial or that the Surat court did not have legal jurisdiction to get on with the case. Some say that Rahul, even if convicted, could have been awarded a prison term for less than two years, sparing him from Lok Sabha disqualification.  Now we cannot exactly predict how the supreme court will adjudge one or two crucial issues here when the case lands up there. Hence we are looking at other things more.

 

Leaders of other major political parties in the country oppose Narendra Modi as fiercely as Rahul Gandhi and his family do.  This happens because Modi has a direct connect with people in many states which help the BJP to emerge strong in those states and come to power, causing incalculable dejection and loss to those other leaders too.  But can you imagine any one of those other leaders speaking so loosely and irresponsibly like Rahul Gandhi, which earned him a court conviction now?  Rahul Gandhi alone will speak like he did.  He is incorrigibly immature and daringly unthinking, like no other front-ranking leader of any political party.  

 

Would you like to know: What is the latest funny thing Rahul said or did after he was convicted by the court and instantly stood disqualified from the Lok Sabha? Hold your laughter and read – this is what he said yesterday at a press conference: “The Prime Minister is scared of my next speech on Adani, and I have seen it in his eyes.  That is why, first the distraction and then the disqualification.”

 

If Rahul’s speech could really scare Prime Minister Narendra Modi, its explosive content or revelations must do that job by drawing people away from Modi in massive numbers, with a potential to defeat the BJP at the next polls in the states or for the Lok Sabha, isn’t it? Then, why can’t Rahul make his speeches outside the Lok Sabha anywhere, even before the media, attract the attention of the whole of India and scare Narendra Modi? Why did not Rahul, during his five-month-long Bharat Jodo Yatra that finished by the end of last January, give such a scare to Modi?

 

Almost all Opposition leaders have come out in support of Rahul Gandhi over the judicial verdict against him, and have sharply criticised a legal fall-out of the two-year jail term he got, viz., his disqualification from Lok Sabha membership.  Their predicament is understandable - if they don't stand with Rahul Gandhi now, they will be seen as strengthening the hands of their common rival Narendra Modi, though they may secretly despise Rahul for his offending Karnataka speech! 

In the end, consider this scenario.

         

YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSRPC is the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. His party and the BJP are political rivals.  “Reddy” in his name is also the name of a caste.  If Union Home Minister Amit Shah had publicly attacked Jagan Mohan Reddy, insulting persons who had “Reddy” in their names – like Rahul spoke ill of men who had "Modi" in their names – and if Amit Shah were convicted by a court and sentenced to two years, and lost his Lok Sabha membership too, what will be the reaction of all Opposition parties? They will praise the independence of our judiciary and acknowledge the merit of our rule of law on resultant disqualification - won't they?

 

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