Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi announced on Saturday that he had been expelled from parliament for challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his relationship with Adani conglomerate founder Gautam Adani.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party responded by stating that Gandhi had been punished for a defamatory remark he made in 2019 and that it had nothing to do with the Adani issue.
Gandhi, the former president and current leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, lost his parliamentary seat on Friday. A day after a Gujarat judge sentenced him to two years in prison for defamation.
The court granted him bail and suspended his sentence for thirty days to enable him to file an appeal.
Gandhi’s speech insulting Modi prompted the slander suit. The party of Gandhi and its associates criticized the court’s decision as being politically motivated.
Gandhi told a news conference at the Congress party’s headquarters in New Delhi, “I have been disqualified. Because the prime minister is afraid of my next speech, he is afraid of my next speech that will be on Adani.”
In his first public remarks since his conviction and disqualification, Gandhi stated, “They do not want that speech to be delivered in parliament.”
Gandhi, 52, the son of three Indian prime ministers, did not explain why Modi might detest his speech.
Gandhi’s once-dominant Congress holds less than 10 percent of the elected seats in the lower house of parliament and has been decimated by the BJP in two consecutive general elections, the most recent of which was in 2019.
Gandhi has been trying to revitalise the party ahead of India’s 2024 general election.
“I am not afraid of a disqualification… “I will continue to ask, ‘What is the relationship between the prime minister and Adani?'” Gandhi said on Saturday.
Opposition comments
Opponents of Modi assert that the prime minister and the BJP have longstanding ties with the Adani group, dating back to when Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat nearly two decades ago. Gautam Adani is also from Gujarat.
In recent years, the Congress party has questioned state-owned firms’ investments in Adani companies and the group’s administration of six airports, despite its lack of experience in the sector.
The Adani group has denied receiving any special privileges from the government, and government ministers have dismissed such opposition claims as “outrageous allegations,” stating that regulators will investigate any potential wrongdoing.
Congress and its allies in the opposition have requested a parliamentary investigation.
“The life of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an open book of integrity,” BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said in response to Gandhi’s statements on Saturday.
“We don’t have to defend Adani, the BJP never defends Adani, but the BJP also doesn’t go after anyone,” Prasad said, accusing Gandhi of habitual dishonesty.
Prasad, a former federal minister, listed international business agreements signed by the Adani group when a Congress-led coalition government ruled India from 2004 to 2014, as well as its investments in Congress-ruled Indian states.
“Then how is the Adani group investing 650 billion rupees ($7.89 billion) in a state governed by your party?” questioned Prasad, referring to an October announcement by the conglomerate that it would invest in the solar power, cement, and airport sectors in the western state of Rajasthan, which is governed by Congress.
After US short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens — accusations the company has denied — Adani’s group is attempting to restore investor confidence.
The value of the company’s shares decreased by more than $100 billion due to the January 24 report by Hindenburg.
