Rahul Gandhi never imagined he will lose Lok Sabha membership for defamation in ‘Modi’ surname case

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, convicted in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark, has said he had never imagined that he would get maximum punishment and would be disqualified as Lok Sabha MP.

Gandhi made the remarks while delivering a lecture at the Stanford University Campus in California.

The Congress leader said that he never thought his disqualification from Lok Sabha was possible when he joined politics, but asserted that it has given him a “huge opportunity” to work and serve the people.

“Democracy isn’t about opposition, it is about sacred institutions that support the opposition, and those institutions by the capture certainly want to change the role it is supposed to do,” Gandhi said.

He was a Member of Parliament (MP) of Wayanad (Kerala) till early this year after which he was disqualified from Lok Sabha following his conviction a Surat court in “Modi surname” remark.

‘First person to be given maximum sentence on defamation’

The Congress leader said when he joined politics in 2004, he “ever imagined what I see going on in our country.”

“It was way outside the way I imagined. To be the first person to be given the first maximum sentence on defamation and maximum sentence to get disqualified. I didn’t imagine that something like this was possible,” Gandhi said.

‘Opposition is struggling’

“But then, I think it’s actually given me a huge opportunity. Probably much bigger than the opportunity I would have. That’s just the way politics works, the 52-year-old Gandhi said.

“I think the drama started really, about six months ago. We were struggling. The entire opposition is struggling in India. Huge financial dominance. Institutional capture. We’re struggling to fight the democratic fight in our country,” he said.

It all happened when he along with his party leaders had decided to walk across the India (through Bharat Jodo Yatra).

“And we never imagined for a second what would happen when we walked across the country. What would happen not just politically, but in terms of the type of response we got, what would happen to us when we walked across our country” he said.

Gandhi went on to say that a lot of people asked him what were the lessons learnt from it. “And for a long time I couldn’t find an answer… I have picked up so much information about the country and what needs to be done. It was a beautiful experience of my life,” he said.

With inputs from agencies

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