Congress Has To Mobilise Its Legal Brains To Organise Stay On Rahul’s Conviction

By Sushil Kutty

The day after, and the day before’s anger hadn’t ebbed. Everybody had something to comment about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification. And none of them had full knowledge of the law that resulted in Rahul Gandhi‘s disqualification. American politicians, like Ro Khanna, who tweeted his anger, could be excused, but what about Indian Members of Parliament like Shashi Tharoor, who endorsed the ignorance of foreigners and gloated at the foreign criticism directed at the Modi government?

The Thiruvananthapuram MP tweeted a set of headlines from foreign publications, and didn’t quite question the explanations given to the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi by many of these foreign publications. “On Friday, Mr. Modi’s allies moved to finish the job: Officials disqualified Mr. Gandhi from his seat in Parliament… The move came before he had any chance to appeal,” wrote the NYT.

Shashi Tharoor and many of his peers in the Indian National Congress should ask themselves why Rahul Gandhi had to walk into the lion’s den in Surat when he was not quite aware of what he would find in there? If seasoned politicians had little idea of why conviction and minimum sentence of 2 years invited immediate disqualification, why did the Congress bigwigs, many of them celebrity barristers, not advise Rahul Gandhi to tender an apology and be done with it?

Nobody in the Congress had the guts to warn Rahul Gandhi of the consequences. The Congress at least should have known of what could be waiting in Surat, certainly not an acquittal, and a warm send off! Was Rahul Gandhi aware that conviction and minimum 2-year sentence would result in automatic disqualification?

Then again, Rahul Gandhi must have remembered the apology he had tendered in the Supreme Court and the ridicule that came his way. Once bitten, twice shy. As it is, the BJP is already spreading the narrative that the Congress deliberately set up Rahul for martyrdom; that prominent Congress leaders had their own reasons to resent Rahul Gandhi, and had had enough of him; his ignorance and his arrogance; perhaps, his stranglehold on decision-making, etcetera, etcetera.

Top lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, who is no longer with the Congress and once had his house plastered with tomatoes because of the G-23 initiative, said the defamation case against Rahul Gandhi was “bizarre”, and wondered what was “Surat” doing for something that happened in “Kolar”, Karnataka? Kolar deals in gold, Surat cuts diamonds! “I wonder why the matter was filed in Surat,” Sibal asked. “There must be an expectation from the political party that maybe they will get a good verdict.”

Well, that “they” got. A verdict to their liking. A case on the same issue had come up in the Patna High Court in 2019, which granted bail to Rahul Gandhi. Maybe, the Congress expected a Patna-like verdict will save the day for the party and Rahul Gandhi. Well, overconfidence is not a virtue. Rahul Gandhi was like the lamb led to the slaughterhouse in Surat!

It is impossible that none of the legal-eagles in the Congress had even a passing thought of the likelihood of an adverse verdict and Rahul Gandhi’s response to an offer of compromise. I&B Minister Anurag Thakur likened Rahul Gandhi to a loose cannon. The court asked Rahul Gandhi if he would offer an “apology”; but no, Rahul wouldn’t get into that rabbit-hole; Rahul Gandhi has stiffness in the knees and wouldn’t bend.

As things stand, the Congress and Rahul Gandhi can battle it out. But along with that, the conviction and sentence should be appealed ASAP. Everybody, friend and foe, are questioning the inexplicable delay, why? And from henceforth Rahul Gandhi should free himself from the influence of Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Supriya Srinate, the last one the party’s spokesperson and social media incharge. There is a good chance that a higher court will overturn both conviction, and the 2-year sentence.

But, the speed at which things happened in the last 72-hours, it can be assumed that from this low, things can only go the opposite direction, i.e., high! That said, the allegation that this was a “conspiracy” cannot be discounted. There is turmoil in Wayanad at the disqualification of “our MP”; and the electorate is out in the streets venting their frustration and anger. A byelection can go only in the Congress party’s favour, which shows that the sole purpose of coaxing the circumstances for a disqualification was to get Rahul Gandhi out of the way for he stood in the way of ‘Saving Private Adani’! (IPA Service)

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