In India, legal troubles continue for Rahul Gandhi
The Congress Party MP and former candidate for Prime Minister was expelled from the Assembly after his conviction on 23 March 2023. REUTERS - ANUSHREE FADNAVIS
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1 min
After being sentenced last week to two years in prison for defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which led to the loss of his parliamentary seat, Rahul Gandhi is due to appear in a court in the country after another complaint by the ruling party for the same remarks.
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With our correspondent in New Delhi, Sébastien Farcis
Rahul Gandhi's legal troubles are not over. It is another elected official of the ruling party, who also bears the surname of Modi, who drags Rahul Gandhi before a court. Same complaint, same argument: BJP Senator Sushil Kumar Modi claims that the opposition leader has defamed all Modi, including him.
Rahul Gandhi had said in 2019, during a campaign speech in the state of Gujarat, where the prime minister is from, that "all thieves bore the surname of Modi", citing two businessmen prosecuted by the justice who bore this name, and Narendra Modi.
Judicial harassment
Rahul Gandhi is summoned on April 12 before a court in Bihar, in the northeast of the country, in the middle of the campaign for the regional elections of Karnataka, in the south, thousands of kilometers away.
This judicial harassment could cripple Congress, the country's main opposition party. Foreign diplomacy reacted in this sense to the first condemnation: the United States said it was "following this trial", Germany said it hoped that "democratic principles apply in this case". The France, more timid, said only to be "committed to the respect of fundamental rights in India".
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Read on on the same topics:
- India
- Narendra Damodardas Modi
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