New Delhi: Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna, who pushed a legislative amendment in the US House of Representatives seeking a waiver of punitive CAATSA sanctions against India last year, has criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha.
“The expulsion of Rahul Gandhi from Parliament is a deep betrayal of Gandhian philosophy and India’s deepest values,” the Democratic Party Congressman, who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, tweeted Friday.
Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha Friday following a Surat court’s decision to convict him in a defamation case. Gandhi was given a two-year jail sentence but the Surat court granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.
Khanna had a message for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well, and he said, “This is not what my grandfather sacrificed years in jail for. Narendra Modi, you have the power to reverse this decision for the sake of Indian democracy.”
The lawmaker was referring to his maternal grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, who was a freedom fighter. Vidyalankar served over three years in jail during British rule. In 1931, he was sentenced to jail merely for writing an editorial on the failure of Round Table conferences. Post-Independence, Vidyalankar served as a Member of Parliament from Punjab.
CAATSA or Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, passed in 2017, is a US legislation that imposes sanctions for defence and strategic engagement with the country’s adversaries such as Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
Last year, when India faced the threat of CAATSA sanctions for importing the S-400 long-range surface-to-air missile defence system from Russia, Khanna introduced an amendment bill in the US House of Representatives, calling for a waiver. The legislative amendment sailed through the House.
In 2022, the Russia-Ukraine war had already broken out and tensions between Moscow and Washington were rising. Khanna’s office said in a press release, “Khanna amendment will affirm the United States’ partnership with India and urge the Biden administration to use their authority to provide India with a CAATSA waiver to help deter aggressors like China.”
In 2020, Turkey faced the CAATSA sanctions from the US for its purchase of S-400 missiles from Russia.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)