Defamation case: Hyderabad Congress protests Gujarat HC’s refusal to stay Rahul’s conviction

Hyderabad: Effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was burnt by Congress workers at the Ambedkar statue in Hyderabad, protesting against the Surat High Court’s refusal to stay Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a criminal defamation case, where Rahul’s ‘Modi surname’ remark led to his disqualification from the Parliament.

Over 100 Congress party workers, along with their leaders, took to the streets to protest the judgement in the city. Former members of Parliament Ponnam Prabhakar, district Congress party presidents and state youth presidents protested on the street.

Anil Kumar Yadav, Secunderabad district Congress president said, “Rahul Gandhi is striving to unite India and speak out against injustice. In order to hinder these efforts, the BJP is causing difficulties by filing complaints through their party workers. They are plotting to politically destroy the leaders by abusing their power and promoting a politics of hatred. Today, we are protesting throughout the state to denounce the BJP’s attitude.”

Congress workers in Goa, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka protested against the Surat High Court order. There were street rallies carried out in these states by the party workers.

President speaks

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said no party leader or worker is afraid of BJP’s “political conspiracy” and said the party will fight the battle both legally and politically.

He alleged that the BJP used “lies as part of a political conspiracy” to get Rahul Gandhi suspended from the Parliament and asserted that the Congress leader has been fighting for truth and will continue his fight.

“He has always fought for the truth and will continue to fight in the future. The truth is that fugitives like Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, Mehul ‘Bhai’, Vijay Mallya, and Jatin Mehta, under the supervision of the Modi government fled the country and reached abroad suspiciously after taking public money. The BJP freed them but used lies as part of a political conspiracy, (to) put him in the dock and got him suspended from Parliament,” Kharge alleged in a tweet in Hindi.

The Congress chief also claimed that “in BJP rule, firstly, the corrupt people run away, and on the other hand, Modiji’s party plays the game of grabbing power by washing those accused of corruption in its washing machine as part of BJP’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.’”