Receive free Indian politics & policy updates
We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Indian politics & policy news every morning.
India’s highest court on Friday suspended a criminal defamation conviction against Rahul Gandhi, prompting immediate calls for India’s most prominent opposition figure to be permitted to return to parliament.
Gandhi was barred from the legislature in March after a court in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sentenced the Indian National Congress MP to two years in prison for suggesting in 2019 that people with the surname Modi were “thieves”.
Congress politicians, who are seeking to oust Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata party in next year’s general election, welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to stay the conviction, saying Gandhi should be quickly restored as an MP.
“Rahul Gandhi was disqualified within 24 hours,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, president of Congress. “Let’s see in how many hours is he reinstated.”
In a 2019 campaign speech, Gandhi asked why people with the surname Modi were “thieves”, making reference to three people who shared the name, including the prime minister.
Gandhi and other Congress politicians had questioned the premise of the case against him, which was brought by Purnesh Modi, a local BJP politician unrelated to the prime minister. They also questioned the speed of the proceedings and the length of the sentence. Indian lawmakers who are sentenced to prison for two years or more are automatically disqualified from their seats.
The Supreme Court said the judge who handed Gandhi the two-year sentence had not given “reasons for imposing the maximum punishment” for defamation.
Congress, which governed India for decades after independence, is the largest opposition party that will challenge the BJP in a national election to be held in the first half of 2024.
Gandhi, 53, the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has produced three prime ministers, has this year emerged as a sharp critic of Modi, questioning the Indian leader’s ties to Gujarati billionaire Gautam Adani and his reluctance to address deadly violence in the north-eastern state of Manipur.
Congress and other opposition parties last month formed an alliance, known by the acronym INDIA, which they say will “safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the constitution” and take on the Hindu nationalist BJP to deny Modi a third term.
“Today, tomorrow or the day after, the truth always wins,” Gandhi said in remarks at Congress party headquarters, where supporters gathered after the Supreme Court decision. “Anyway, my path is clear.”
Modi’s BJP is widely tipped to win next year’s election, but Congress wrested power from the ruling party in a closely watched election in India’s southern Karnataka state in May and hopes victory in other upcoming state elections will pave the way for a potential return to national power.
