India court rejects Rahul Gandhi’s plea to stay defamation ruling

A high court in the western Indian state of Gujarat has rejected an appeal by opposition leader Rahul Gandhi to suspend his conviction in a defemation case.

Friday’s order quashes for now the Congress leader’s hope of returning to parliament, contesting national elections due next year.  Gandhi can now take his appeal to a larger bench of the Gujarat High Court and then to the Supreme Court, his last option.

Gandhi was convicted in March this year in a case brought by a state legislator from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after comments he made in 2019 were deemed to be insulting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other people surnamed Modi.

The legislator who shares the prime minister’s surname, which is common in Gujarat, accused the opposition leader of defamation over a speech in which he asked, “Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?”

Gandhi had then referred to three well-known and unrelated Modis in the speech: a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon, a cricket executive banned from the Indian Premier League (IPL), and the prime minister.

(Aljazeera)