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<\/a>The case was filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, who alleged that Gandhi had insulted the entire Modi community by saying “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” during an election rally in Karnataka in 2019. The court found Gandhi guilty under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with criminal defamation.<\/span><\/p>\n The conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case over his ‘Modi surname’ remark has sparked a political storm in India. Gandhi, who represents Wayanad constituency in Lok Sabha, has been disqualified as a MP following his sentence of two years in jail by a Surat court on Thursday (March 23). He has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"bottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"2","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-715","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"203","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[8948,8949],"class_list":["post-97503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-congress-leader-rahul-gandhi","tag-disqualified-as-a-lok-sabha-mp"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Rahul](\"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/lok-sabha-11.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
The Congress party has condemned the verdict and accused the BJP of using legal tactics to silence its critics. It has also questioned the legal basis of disqualifying Gandhi as a MP on grounds of defamation. The party said it will challenge the order in higher courts and continue to expose the “dark deeds” of the Modi government.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Rahul](\"https:\/\/www.assamtimespost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/New-Delhi-Congress-leader-Rahul-Gandhi-during-the_1672293553639-770x433-1.webp\" "\\"\\"")
Meanwhile, several opposition leaders and civil society activists have expressed solidarity with Gandhi and raised concerns over the shrinking space for dissent and free speech in India. They have also pointed out that defamation should be treated as a civil offence, not a criminal one, and that generic references to surnames do not amount to defamation of individuals or communities.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"