Rahul Gandhi has been speaking against the politics of the RSS, so without destroying or neutralizing him, the dream of the RSS to transform India into a majoritarian state will not be fulfilled. This is the reason why the BJP and the government are attacking them with full force.
Rahul Gandhi. (Photo Credits: Facebook/@rahulgandhi)
The meaning of Rahul Gandhi’s punishment and cancellation of his parliament membership is serious for India’s democracy. Therefore, it is a matter of satisfaction that realizing this seriousness, almost all political parties has criticized it. Expressing solidarity with Rahul Gandhi cannot be taken to mean that all the parties have accepted him as their leader. More important than that, Rahul Gandhi’s opinion about the health of Indian democracy seems to be becoming the general political opinion now. It is a matter of satisfaction.
First talk about the cancellation of Rahul Gandhi’s membership of Parliament. If any MP is punished for 2 years or above, then his membership can be terminated legally.
On the day of Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom, a court in Surat, Gujarat convicted him under the defamation law in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment. This was sufficient ground to terminate his membership of Parliament. Acting swiftly, the Lok Sabha Secretariat followed the law and issued a notice to terminate Rahul Gandhi’s membership.
Legal experts are expressing surprise at the punishment given to Rahul Gandhi. 4 years ago, in an election meeting, Rahul Gandhi, taking the names of the criminals who escaped from the country by embezzlement and embezzlement of lakhs of crores and linking their relationship with Narendra Modi, quipped that why Modi is in the name of all these thieves. Regarding this, a former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA filed a defamation case in a Gujarat court.
Few people know that about a year ago, he applied in the Gujarat High Court to postpone his own case for one year. This was very strange because usually the accused want to avoid the trial. But in this case the plaintiff wanted the hearing to be postponed. But it should not surprise us that the Gujarat High Court accepted this bizarre demand.
The year was not yet completed that the plaintiff again reached the High Court and demanded an early hearing of the case. The court did not ask that you had asked for a year’s adjournment, why soon. Like last time, this time too he accepted the words of the BJP leader.
Should we be surprised that the trial resumed in February this year and this time the judges had changed, ie not the ones before whom almost the entire trial had taken place? Should it be surprising that the court heard the entire case within a month and gave its verdict? We have seen in very few cases that the trial is completed and the verdict is delivered in such a short period. But now everything or anything is possible.
Even if all these facts are left aside, legal experts are saying that this case does not constitute defamation. In many decisions in this matter, the Supreme Court and other courts have made it clear that in the case of defamation, it should be satisfied that the complainant has suffered personal defamation. Then there is also the compulsion to consider the situation and see the intention. That means the criterion is very strict.
Keeping all these in mind, Rahul Gandhi’s funny statement does not defame any individual or community from anywhere. Even if the court accepted this, why did it award the maximum sentence in this case?
Those who understand know that Rahul Gandhi’s membership of Parliament could not have been terminated for less than two years. And today the biggest need for the Bharatiya Janata Party is to get Rahul Gandhi out of the Parliament. Along with it, to tell in the eyes of the public that he has no hand in this, this is the compulsion of the law. But this decision cannot be understood without keeping it in today’s context.
For the last few days, the people of the BJP and the government were not allowing Rahul Gandhi to speak in the Lok Sabha. He accused Rahul Gandhi in Parliament that he spoke against India in London, defamed India. He wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker that justice demands that he be given a chance to answer these allegations. But this was not done.
Still, for how many days could Rahul Gandhi be stopped from speaking in Parliament? If there was a chance, he would have repeated those things which he had said in London and which he has been saying for the last several years. For how many days could Rahul Gandhi’s mic be switched off?
What was Rahul Gandhi saying?
That democracy in India is dying. The ruling party has control over the Parliament. All the institutions of the Indian state have left their constitutional responsibility and are working as their own institutions of the BJP and the government. Be it the Election Commission or the investigative agencies, all are working against the opposition and the public. The media, which holds the government accountable, has decided to act as its spokesperson. Not only this, he enthusiastically finds new excuses to defame and attack the opposition and Muslims. Judiciary has sided with the government in important matters and has not played its role of protecting the freedom of the citizens.
The government has been formed with the vote of the people, but it is handing over all the resources of the country to some capitalist families. Especially Rahul Gandhi’s repeated emphasis on Narendra Modi’s relationship with Gautam Adani is very inconvenient for Modi and the BJP. But more important than all of them is Rahul Gandhi’s insistence on running India in a constitutional way.
Rahul Gandhi undertook the Bharat Jodo Yatra to re-establish civility, decency, harmony and dialogue as the basis of Indian politics and life. It is more important to restore some social and human principles than to win the election by any means. That’s why Rahul Gandhi ignored this criticism that he is not paying attention to the election and is traveling unnecessarily, which will not get any electoral benefit.
India is a continuous dialogue between its crores of people, they are in harmony with each other. It will not be defined by any one group, no matter how many there are. This is in sharp contrast to the majoritarian approach of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP. The RSS and the BJP are wrong not because they claim to be in the interests of Hindus, but because they keep making Hindus afraid of the rest of India, that is, Muslims and Christians, thereby instilling a permanent insecurity in them, and then projecting themselves as their saviors. Let’s introduce.
They create hatred among Hindus towards these communities. Because of this, their political language is full of fear, threats, violence. After all, this is politics of relegating the Muslim and Christian communities to the status of second class citizens.
Over the years, Rahul Gandhi has tried to practice a gentle, civilized politics against this violent politics. The conflict is between the separatist, hegemonic and therefore violent politics of the RSS and the BJP, developed during the independence movement and based on the guiding values of independent India as propounded by the Constitution, which emphasize equality for all, justice for all and fraternity for freedom for all. Gives Rahul Gandhi has boldly defined India time and again as a federation of states. This is also against the centrist approach of RSS.
For historical reasons, Rahul Gandhi has become the spokesman for these values, as well as a symbol. Everyone is also seeing that Rahul Gandhi is the only one among the politicians who has been speaking against the politics of the RSS. Therefore, without destroying or neutralizing them, the RSS dream of converting India into a majoritarian state will not be fulfilled. This is the reason why the BJP and the government are attacking Rahul Gandhi with all their might.
Hope this becomes an occasion that all the opposition parties stand together and tell the public what is the meaning of the attack on Rahul Gandhi. Only then the struggle to get back India’s democracy can be done.
(The author teaches at Delhi University.)
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Categories: Politics, Opinion, Special
