New Delhi, March 31: The Congress has contended that there is no delay in the filing of a review petition challenging the Surat court verdict against Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case and it is likely to be registered “shortly” before the sessions court.
Sources said the 168-page judgement of the Surat court against Gandhi has been translated by experts and the petition is ready for filing, but his legal team is taking an “abundantly cautious approach” keeping in view its repercussions that it could have on the two other similar cases filed in Patna and Ranchi courts on the same grounds.
The sources also said that Gandhi’s legal team handling the case has 30 days (from March 23) to file an appeal before the sessions court.
But they are prepared to go to the next level, sources in the party said, noting that Gandhi stands disqualified as he has taken on Prime Minister Narendra Modi “consistently and directly” ever since the 2016 demonetisation, followed by GST bill and privatisation, with the latest attack being on his relationship with businessman Gautam Adani.
Top legal advisors of the Congress are working on the review petition which will be filed before the Surat sessions court in a day or two, they added.
Gandhi was convicted and was given a two-year sentence in the 2019 defamation case over his remarks on Modi surname, following which he was disqualified as member of Lok Sabha.
The Congress has said it will fight the matter both politically and legally and will take the issue to the public.
Sources in the party feel that Gandhi’s disqualification has helped bring unity among the opposition ranks with its first consequence being 19 opposition parties now displaying rare unity against the BJP against only a handful earlier.
A major meeting of senior leaders of these opposition parties is likely to be steered by the Congress in the next three or four weeks, the sources added.
They also feel that the BJP is out to embarrass Gandhi in a telling and dramatic way due to the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The party also feels that Gandhi will get public sympathy following his disqualification, even as they asserted that the ideological moorings within the party have sharpened in the last few months.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Friday said the sequence of events connected with Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha unfolded with the speed of a “bullet train” and alleged that the BJP expects him to “apologise” to “people who have run away” after taking people’s money from India.
Addressing a press conference at the Rajiv Bhawan here, Congress media and publicity department chairperson Pawan Khera said in the last few days, a “tsunami of support” has come up on Twitter, with many people offering their homes to Gandhi as “he lives in our hearts” and the government does not need to worry about his home.
A notice to Gandhi to vacate the 12, Tughlaq Lane bungalow was served by the Housing Committee of Lok Sabha following his disqualification last week after a Surat court convicted and sentenced him to two years imprisonment in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark. Khera said the party’s campaign seeking answers in the Adani issue will continue with vigour, and “our party leader will not apologise to anyone, whatever may be the consequences”.
The Congress on Thursday had used embattled IPL founder Lalit Modi’s tweets threatening to take Gandhi to court to attack the BJP and said “global scamsters” were now coming to the defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Launching a fresh salvo at the BJP, Khera said, “first big extracts from his (Gandhi’s) speech in Parliament were expunged, and then he was not allowed to come into Parliament, and conditions were kept that if he will come, he would have to apologise first”.
He asked, “Apology for what? For a comment that he didn’t make, and they alleged that he insulted the country.” “The challenges facing democracy in India, to discuss that with Indian students studying abroad, what is wrong with that? Democracy get strengthened through dialogue,” Khera said.
He said when an award is given by a foreign country, then they carry that “certification from abroad” and go about it, then they (BJP) don’t say as to why a foreign certification is needed. But, if it has been said abroad that there are challenges to democracy then they get offended, the Congress leader said.
Without naming any leader, Khera said when he said how people earlier used to feel ashamed to have been born in India, then was it not an insult to the country in foreign land. Khera said on February 7, Gandhi gave a speech in Parliament on the Adani issue, and put forth his view and asked questions.
“Within nine days, comes a defamation case, on which the petitioner himself had sought a stay earlier. He runs to the court to get his stay vacated. And, hearing begins again in a Surat court, and seven hearings take place in 20 days. Bullet train! And, then punishment is pronounced. Within 24-hour of the sentence, he (Gandhi) is disqualified from Lok Sabha,” Khera said. (PTI)
