New Delhi: Suggesting an ‘internal turmoil’ within the Congress might have weakened the legal challenge to the defamation case against Rahul Gandhi, the BJP Monday questioned the absence of senior leaders and legal experts from the opposition party during previous hearings of the criminal lawsuit in Surat.
Speaking at a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, Union Minister Piyush Goyal named five senior Congress leaders – who are prominent lawyers – P Chidambaram, Manish Tewari, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, KTS Tulsi, Vivek Tankha, along with former party leader Kapil Sibal, and asked why none of them appeared during the court hearings while the case went on for four years.
The Commerce and Industry minister also claimed that Gandhi was advised by senior Congress leaders to apologise but he did not do so because he is arrogant.
“I want to understand this… This case was going on for four years and there were multiple hearings. There are senior leaders and law experts in the party…. till the last hearing, nobody came to the hearing. The arguments were going on in the court even after the conviction. Is there some internal turmoil within the Congress? Did all these senior leaders deliberately put Rahul Gandhi in trouble? On whose advice was this legal process being carried out?” Goyal posed a volley of questions.
Listing the names of six leaders from different parties who were “disqualified under the same law” – RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav, Congress’s Rasheed Masood, JDU’s Jagdish Sharma, T. M. Selvaganapathy from AIADMK, Mohammed Faizal from NCP and Abdullah Azam Khan from SP – the BJP minister asked “why there was no outrage” when these lawmakers were disqualified.
“As per Congress leader Pramod Tiwari, laws should be different for Gandhi family. Congress is just giving an example of its dynasty politics,” Goyal said, while flashing a paper containing a list of all previous MPs disqualified after conviction in criminal cases. He also added that the opposition parties have only half-heartedly supported Rahul Gandhi.
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Demand for apology
Reiterating BJP’s stand on the issues, Goyal said the incident has shown Congress party’s bias against the OBC community.
He also raised questions on Congress’ Satyagraha and said the party intended to disrespect the law of the country.
“Today, Congressmen came to the House in black clothes. How long will the Congress party continue to do such small-scale politics? Do Congressmen want to insult the temple of democracy? Do they want to insult the law and order of the country? Was this protest against the highest court – the Supreme Court? Because according to the law by the Supreme Court, one gets immediately disqualified as an MP if they are convicted in a case”, Goyal said.
Earlier on Saturday, BJP leader and former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said the Congress was trying to take political mileage out of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification and take advantage of the issue in the Karnataka assembly elections. Shankar had also expressed surprise at the fact that a number of senior lawyers in the Congress chose not to intervene in the case, as they did in the case of Congress leader Pawan Khera a few weeks ago, he alleged.
Khera was detained at the Delhi airport while he was going to Raipur to take part in Congress’ plenary session last month for allegedly making objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi had appeared for the Congress leader, following which he got bail.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi disqualification poses question. Who owns Constitution: Parliament or courts?