Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi Chairman Prakash Ambedkar on Friday accused the BJP of showing “undue haste” in disqualifying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from being a member of Parliament.
Dr. BR Ambedkar’s grandson said: “According to the Surat court order, Gandhi had the right to appeal to a higher court. It was the right granted by the judiciary.”
If Gandhi’s appeal had been upheld or rejected by a higher court, then the question of the exercise of disqualifying powers could be considered, Ambedkar said.
“However, BJP has not allowed any process to complete. They made hasty decisions to disqualify the membership of Raul Gandhi who was elected representative in Parliament. All this smacks of politics. It’s unfair to the leader of Congress. It goes against democratic norms,” he added.
He surat court has convicted Gandhi for his comment on the “surname Modi”. Gandhi made this comment during the 2019 general election campaign.
Gandhi was found guilty in a libel case related to the comment and sentenced to two years in prison. He is currently out on bail.
Ambedkar, who is also a lawyer, said: “Any individual, in any case, always has the proper opportunity to go and appeal against the court order. Unless the process is completed, the status quo remains.
Unfortunately, he argued, “the BJP’s only concern seems to be to punish the rival and put him in jail. In this case, they went ahead with the disqualification, which is shocking.”