The BJP on Thursday welcomed a Surat court’s conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a case of defamation. The party fielded senior spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad who said that if Gandhi has the right to abuse or disrespect anyone, then those who have been hurt by such comments have the right to file a defamation case in court.
At a press conference in the party headquarters, Prasad said that the law of the land will be applied. “The law of India is that if an individual or an organisation has been defamed by defamatory comments or abuses, then he has the right to seek address. The Congress has an objection to it; they want complete freedom for Rahul Gandhi to utter abuses,” he said.
In the Lok Sabha, Union Minister Piyush Goyal reiterated the party’s demand for an apology from Gandhi for his comments in the UK. “It is important that the nation hears an apology from the leader of their party who is responsible for causing so much discredit to the country and to the Parliament,” Goyal said. He added that Gandhi has never respected anyone, including Congress’s own prime minister Manmohan Singh, in reference to Gandhi tearing the UPA-era ordinance in 2013 to overturn section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act as per which lawmakers could not be disqualified for three months despite conviction.
Another BJP leader, Sushil Modi, welcomed the move and said he was insulted by Gandhi’s comments of “all Modis are thieves”. At the Parliament, Modi said that he, too, had filed a similar defamation case against Gandhi in a Patna court.