New Delhi:
Congress’s Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has been summoned by a court in Lucknow in connection with his alleged derogatory remarks against the Indian Army during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Mr Gandhi will have to appear before the Lucknow MP MLA court — a special court that can try cases against MPs and MLAs — in the last week of March.
Former director of Border Road Organization or BRO Uday Shankar Srivastava had filed the complaint against Mr Gandhi on basis of which the defamation case was registered.
Mr Gandhi had apparently made the remarks on the Indian Army during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in December 2022.
The comment that “Chinese soldiers are beating up Indian Army personnel in Arunachal Pradesh” – a dig at the government over Chinese action at the Line of Actual Control — drew sharp criticism from many quarters and led to a massive political row.
Many BJP leaders had declared that Mr Gandhi as anti-national, accused his family of receiving Chinese hospitality and funds in the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
It did not deter Mr Gandhi who continued to target the government over the China issue.
In March 2023, Mr Gandhi was barred from attending for a while after he was found guilty in a defamation case for a remark targetting Prime Minister M Narendra Modi over his last name. The Gujarat court which was hearing the case, sentenced him to a two-year jail term.
Though the sentence was suspended, the duration was exactly what was needed to bar leaders from parliament, the Opposition pointed out, calling it a conspiracy against the Congress leader.
Mr Gandhi later received relief from the Supreme Court, which put his conviction on hold, pointing out that the trial judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years in the case. If the sentence was a day lesser, it would not have attracted disqualification, the court had added in its judgment.
