PNS|Hyderabad
Congress MP Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy hailed the Supreme Court’s decision to stay AICC leader Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case regarding a comment that he made about the ‘Modi surname.’ Uttam Kumar Reddy, in a media statement on Friday, said the Supreme Court’s decision serves two essential purposes: first, it reinstates Rahul as a Member of Parliament, and second, it enables him to contest in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress MP said that Justice BR Gavai’s judgement correctly highlighted the broader implications of Rahul Gandhi’s conviction.
Apart from tarnishing Rahul’s political standing, the conviction infringes on the rights of the electorate who elected him as their representative.
Uttam criticised the BJP, and accused it of being a “factory of hate speeches.” He said the BJP strategically targeted Rahul with a defamation case in an attempt to invalidate his Parliamentary membership and impose an eight-year ban on him. He added that unlike BJP leaders Rahul consistently uses dignified language while criticising opponents.
He argued that BJP leaders feared the increasing popularity of Rahul after the Bharat Jodo Yatra. They feared that Rahul’s messages of peace and his ‘Mohabbat Ki Dukan’ could destabilise their rule, which Uttam portrayed as one characterised by ‘hatred’ and ‘violence.’
Uttam said that there were several BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, who regularly use provocative, defamatory and intimidating language in their speeches and faces no consequences.
He said that Rahul was singled out and targeted with baseless accusations.
Declaring that justice has prevailed, Uttam expressed confidence that the final verdict would also be in favour of Rahul.
Reiterating that no force on earth can silence the voice of the people he said, “The Supreme Court’s verdict not only rekindled public faith in the judiciary but also underscored the significance of protecting democratic values,” he said.
