Rahul gandhi latest news

A court finished hearing arguments in Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s appeal to suspend his defamation conviction and will pass an order on April 20, his lawyer said. Gandhi, a scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, wanted to secure a stay of his conviction from the court to be reinstated as a member of parliament. His defamation conviction carries a two-year prison term and if not lifted could see him barred from next year’s national elections.

America had a Howdy Modi moment again. This time, neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Donald Trump was in sight. Nor were 50,000 in attendance. The setting featured Rahul Gandhi at a Silicon Valley incubator’s fireside chat. “I assume my phone is tapped,” quipped Gandhi. “I can probably say hello to Mr Modi right now if you want.” And then speaking into his phone as if to the prime minister himself, he continued, “Hello!” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during an interaction with the Indian diaspora, in San Francisco, USA. (PTI) But Rahul Gandhi himself had forever remained an enigma. He and I had even worked together at the same firm many years ago — but I never knew who he was; he used a pseudonym back then and looked nothing like the little boy in photographs. In 2013, prior to a pivotal election, he spoke of the energies of rivers, beehives, a thirty-six-hour train ride with optimists heading from dusty Gorakhpur to glittery Of course, with another pivotal election coming up, with wind on his back from Karnataka, when Rahul Gandhi showed up in the US this month, I thought I would take the time to listen — conveniently, on YouTube. He kept his speeches reasonably short, with simple messaging, delivered without notes or drowning the audience with wonk-talk. He pauses after every other word, as if to think it through, almost as if he is conscious of keeping that infamous wit in check. He was eager to take questions and have a conversation with no handlers to manage opti...

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrives at Parliament House complex in New Delhi on Wednesday, (PTI) A spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said the government had “taken note of the verdict of first instance” against Rahul Gandhi and the “suspension of his parliamentary mandate”. This was the first response by Germany or any other European country on the case of Gandhi. “To our knowledge, Mr Gandhi is in a position to appeal the verdict. It will then become clear whether this verdict will stand and whether the suspension of his mandate has any basis,” the spokesperson told a regular media briefing, speaking in German. “We expect that the standards of judicial independence and fundamental democratic principles will equally apply to the proceedings against Rahul Gandhi,” the spokesperson said in her remarks, which were beamed on public broadcaster Deutsche Welle. There was no immediate response from Indian officials. Gandhi, the MP from Wayanad constituency in Kerala, was disqualified after being convicted in a case filed over his remarks about people with the surname Modi. He had made the comments during an election campaign rally in Karnataka in 2019. Gandhi is currently free on bail. The comments by the German foreign ministry’s spokesperson came close on the heels of US state department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel saying that the US is tracking Gandhi’s case in Indian courts. Asked at a media briefing whether Gandhi’s expulsion from Parliament was consistent w...

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has lodged an appeal against his conviction for defamation, hoping to overturn a judgment that resulted in his expulsion from parliament a year before general election is due. A court in Gujarat state’s Surat city on Monday accepted his petition and posted it for hearing on April 13. Gandhi had appealed his two-year jail sentence in the defamation case brought against him by a legislator from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The 52-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family and leader of the Congress party was found In the speech, the Congress leader had referred to two fugitive businessmen, both surnamed Modi and asked: “How come all thieves have the name Modi?” “The 2019 speech was not aimed at defaming millions of people having the surname Modi,” Gandhi’s lawyer Kirit Panwala said, adding that their appeal would also highlight “procedural lapses” in the trial. A lower court sentenced Gandhi on March 23 to two years in jail on charges of defamation over the comment he made while campaigning ahead of the last general election. India’s parliament But opposition politicians say Gandhi’s BJP leaders reject that and say Gandhi’s case represents the Congress party’s “arrogance and its readiness to hurt sections of society” to settle political scores with the prime minister. Gandhi said on March 25 that he would not comment on his sentence as the matter was sub judice, but he said his disqualification from parliam...

The rejection of the plea means Gandhi, former leader of the Congress party and the most recognisable face of India’s political opposition, is disqualified from office and there will now be a byelection in his Kerala constituency. Gandhi’s lawyers said they would challenge the ruling in a higher court. “We are going to challenge the decision in Gujarat high court tomorrow. We have full faith that the judiciary will uphold justice and save the democracy,” said Naishadh Desai. In March, Gandhi was convicted of defamation by a court in Gujarat over a 2019 speech made on the campaign trail in which he linked the prime minister, Purnesh Modi, a legislator in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, subsequently filed a case in the courts alleging that all those named Modi in the country had been offended and defamed by Gandhi’s comment. The case had stagnated in the courts for almost two years, but earlier this year it was resumed and It was also the minimum jail sentence needed in order to expel Gandhi from parliament, which happened Gandhi was granted 30 days bail after the ruling. He immediately filed an appeal, calling the sentence “harsh and excessive”, arguing that the case was “politically motivated” and that a “cloak of defamation” had been used as a means to get him expelled from parliament. Gandhi’s lawyers have also argued that the 130 million people called Modi in India are not one collective group that can be defamed and that the sentence was based on “conjecture not evidence...

Following Rahul Gandhi's conviction for his statement 'why all thieves have Modi surname in common', Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha. In his appeal, Rahul Gandhi told the sessions court that there was no need for the maximum punishment, The trial was not fair, his lawyer told the court. The judgement by the magistrate was "strange" because the trial court judge "made a hotchpotch of all the evidence on record", Rahul Gandhi's lawyer told the court. Opposing his plea, complainant Purnesh Modi said Rahul Gandhi is a repeat offender and he refused to apologise for the comment. 'Satyameva Jayate': BJP reacts BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla called the rejection by the sessions court 'satyameva jayate' and asked whether the Congress will now raise questions on courts again. "Will they finally junk their arrogance and apologise to the OBC community rather than question the judiciary," the BJP spokesperson said.

SANTA CLARA (US): The ruling Responding to questions from the moderator and the audiences at an event at the Silicon Valley Campus of the University of California in Santa Cruz on Tuesday, Gandhi said he can clearly see "vulnerabilities" in the BJP. “As a political entrepreneur, I can clearly see vulnerabilities in the BJP... The BJP can be defeated if the opposition is aligned properly,” he said. “If you look at the Karnataka elections, the general sense is that the Congress Party fought the BJP and defeated the BJP. But what is not well understood is the mechanics that we used," he said. The Congress party used a completely different approach to fighting an election and building a narrative, Gandhi said, adding that elements of what happened in Karnataka came out of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'. In the May 10 elections to the 224-member Karnataka assembly, the Congress won 135 seats, while incumbent BJP and the former prime minister HD Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) got 66 and 19, respectively. Gandhi said in the Karnataka elections, the BJP spent 10 times more money than the Congress party. He said the country needed an alternative vision to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in addition to having a united Opposition in the 2024 general elections. “On the matter of opposition unity, we are working towards it and it is coming along very nicely. But I think in order to defeat the BJP, you need more than just opposition unity. Just opposition unity, in my opin...

AHMEDABAD, India, March 23 (Reuters) - A lower court in India sentenced opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday to two years in jail on charges of defamation for a 2019 speech in which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi. Gandhi will appeal against the order in a higher court, but any jailing for him or his disqualification from parliament would be a blow to his Congress party ahead of the 2024 general election, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party is widely expected to win. The judgment was passed by a magistrate's court in the city of Surat, located in Modi's home state of Gujarat. The case was brought by a Gujarat lawmaker from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Gandhi, the 52-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, was present at the Surat court, which gave him bail immediately and suspended the sentence for a month. "Accused Rahul Gandhi is held guilty ... and sentenced to two years simple imprisonment," Harish Varma, the chief judicial magistrate of Surat, said in his order. Ketan Reshamwala, an advocate for complainant Purnesh Modi, said the court had found Gandhi's comment defamatory. An adviser to the federal government, Kanchan Gupta, said Gandhi could face immediate disqualification from parliament following the conviction, in line with a 2013 order of the country's highest court. "Any reasonable system, any reasonable, fair, non-oppressive, non-biased system would give sufficient time to a person to take some legal steps t...