INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday said the Gujarat high court's decision to reject Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking stay in a defamation case was
"disappointing, but not unexpected"
"The jurisprudence found in this judgment is unique and extraordinary
It has no precedent in the jurisprudence of the law of defamation by which the whole country is familiar," said senior Congress leader
Abhishek Manu Singhvi during a press conference.Core legal issue unanswered: Singhvi"The core legal issue was how can an legally undefined,
amorphous group claim locus and lodge a defamation case.Without answering this core question, the court appears to hold indirectly that any
member of this undefined 13-crore-strong group can stand up and say I have been defamed without showing any personal loss or damage and most
essentially without showing malice on part of the accused [Rahul Gandhi] ..
There is no precedent for this type of defamation case," said Singhvi.The defamation case was lodged over Rahul Gandhi's "Modi surname"
remark during a rally in Karnataka
Gandhi had, in his speech linked PM Narendra Modi with fugitives like Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi
He had said: "Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi
How come all the thieves have 'Modi' as a common surname?" The BJP claimed his comments had defamed all 'Modis' in the country.03:50'As far
as defamation is concerned, Rahul Gandhi is a habitual offender': BJP's Ravi Shankar PrasadA metropolitan magistrate's court in Surat on
March 23 had sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail after convicting him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (criminal
defamation) in a 2019 case filed by BJP Gujarat MLA Purnesh Modi
Rahul was later disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP following the conviction.'All complainants BJP office bearers'Singhvi went on to say the
malice actually appears to lie with the undefined group, members of which are "filing diverse cases across the country"."All the
complainants in the diverse cases are office bearers -- big, small or medium -- in the BJP ..
Clearly its a orchestrated political campaign ..
there is a motivated pattern to the cases," he said.Alleging that this was not an issue about Rahul Gandhi or Congress, Singhvi said these
cases are a "desperate and blatant attempt to throttle free speech"
"Whether you are a politician or a journalist, the idea is to throttle your free expression and thought," he added."We have full faith in
the judiciary and in particular the Supreme Court where we are now proceeding
We have no doubt that this intersection of arrogance and infallibility shown by this government will be dealt with properly in the Supreme
Court," the Congress leader said.Rahul has always fought for the truth: KhargeOn Friday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said no party
leader or worker was afraid of BJP's "political conspiracy".He alleged that the BJP has used "lies" as part of a political conspiracy to get
Rahul Gandhi suspended from Parliament, asserting that the Congress leader has been fighting for truth and will continue his fight."Rahul
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, Jatin Mehta, under the supervision of the Modi
