Attack on democracy a BJP conspiracy, says Congress

Citing the sequence of events in the 2019 criminal defamation case at the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan in Ahmedabad, GPCC president Jagdish Thakor said, “Rahul Gandhi made the remark on April 13, 2019 in Kolar in Karnataka… BJP MLA and former state minister in Surat files a case on April 16, 2019… Rahul gets a stay on the court proceedings on March 7, 2022.”

“On February 7, 2023 Rahul gave a speech in Lok Sabha on Prime Minister Modi and (industrialist) Adani… on February 16, the prosecutor withdrew his stay, trial began on February 27, 2023, and judgement came on March 23 where the court found him guilty… On March 24 his Lok Sabha membership was cancelled. The chronology of events clearly shows the plan to attack democracy,” he added claiming that new examples of such attacks are emerging every day.

Claiming that Rahul spoke extensively about the relationship between Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi with evidence taken from media reports in the Parliament, Thakor said, “Some parts of Rahul’s speech were removed. Despite writing a letter to the Speaker in which he said that ports and airports have been given to Adani by changing the rules, compromising the security of the country…, nothing happened.”

Court and punishment are just excuses to protect Adani, former health minister of Rajasthan and party’s Gujarat incharge Raghu Sharma said, “We have full faith in the judiciary. Congress party or Rahul Gandhi will not be afraid of attempts to scare the opposition by trying to threaten or making false cases… This whole issue is not about OBC, but about the relationship between Narendra Modi and Adani.”

In Vadodara, former GPCC president Bharatsinh Solanki said that the BJP “conspired through a court case to take away” Rahul Gandhi’s Parliament membership as it was “intimidated” by the response his Bharat Jodo Yatra received.

“The fact that the BJP moved to disqualify him within hours of the court order shows how afraid they are of the Congress and its leaders, especially Rahulji, who has been demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the Adani scam,” the former Union Minister, who was on a visit to Vadodara, said.

Flanked by the local Congress leaders of Vadodara, Solanki said the “fight for truth” will continue but would “not be easy”. “We will go amid the people, meet intellectuals and discuss the path on which we would like our country to walk… It is not about elections but about the shape our country is taking… These battles that are silent but for the truth, do not end in a day or two. They are long battles,” said Solanki, showing confidence that the BJP will lose the upcoming Assembly polls in Karnataka.