Congress leader Amitesh Shukla hailed Rahul Gandhi and called him Mahatma Gandhi of modern India. Comparing the former Congress chief to Mahatma Gandhi, Shukla said that both of them have a lot of similarities. “Rahul Gandhi is the Mahatma Gandhi of modern India. He has a lot of similarities with Mahatma Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi did Bharat Jodo Yatra whereas Mahatma Gandhi did the Dandi march back then,” Amitesh Shukla told ANI.
“I have said this with complete responsibility. I also belong to a family of freedom fighters. Based on the things I have heard from my father and uncle who were also a part of the freedom struggle, I felt Rahul Gandhi really has a lot of qualities similar to Mahatma Gandhi. They used to tell me about Mahatma Gandhi,” Shukla said.
Earlier on Monday, the court in Gujarat's Surat granted bail to the Congress leader till the disposal of the appeal in the defamation case. The former MP from Wayanad was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Varma on March 23 in a defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remark in 2019 in Karnataka.
The matter pertains to Rahul's remarks at a rally in Karnataka's Kolar in April 2019, Rahul, in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?". Following his conviction, Rahul was disqualified as an MP on March 24, as per a Supreme Court ruling in 2013. Under the ruling, any MP or MLA stands to be disqualified automatically if convicted and sentenced to 2 years or more.
A day after the Surat court granted bail to Rahul Gandhi in the case, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla demanding a debate in Parliament on the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as MP.
"There should be a debate in the Parliament as to ascertain the fact that whether our leader Rahul Gandhi has been awarded disproportionate punishment which smacks of cognitive dissonance or equality of law is meted out to all the elected members whosoever," Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said in a letter, as quoted by ANI.
Chowdhury in his letter also cited the disqualification case of the incumbent Member of Parliament from 14, Amreli Lok Sabha Constituency of Gujarat Naranbhai Kachhadiya. "May I like to remind you that during the last Lok Sabha the incumbent Member of Parliament from 14, Amreli Lok Sabha Constituency of Gujarat Naranbhai Kachhadiya was convicted of an offence under sections 332, 186 and 143 IPC and awarded a punishment of three years imprisonment under section 332 IPC and six months imprisonment under section 143 IPC," the letter read.
"Kachhadiya preferred an appeal to the High Court and the Hon'ble High Court on 18th April, 2016 declined to stay the conviction. However, the Hon'ble High Court allowed suspension of the sentence," it added.