India’s Supreme Court on Friday suspended Rahul Gandhi’s two-year prison sentence, a decision that could pave the way for the opposition leader’s return to parliament. “The trial judge did not give a reason for imposing the maximum sentence,” said member of India’s highest court, B.R. Gavai, adding that “the sentencing decision should be stayed pending a final judgment.”
This conviction is “seriously prejudicial to freedom of speech”, according to the Supreme Court’s decision. Rahul Gandhi seized the latter in mid-July, after the rejection of a previous appeal. The 52-year-old opponent was sentenced on March 23 to two years in prison for defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for remarks made during an election campaign in 2019. He said that “all the thieves have Modi as their last name.”
The case, in the prime minister’s home state of Gujarat, is one of many in recent years against Mr Gandhi, who is Mr Modi’s main opponent and leader of the Congress Party (opposition). The Gujarat State High Court, before which Rahul Gandhi first brought the case, ruled on July 7 that the original verdict was “fair and legal”.
A first appeal was dismissed by a lower-level Gujarat court in April, a month after Rahul Gandhi’s initial conviction and subsequent expulsion from parliament. In his appeal brief, Mr. Gandhi pointed out that his statement was made “in the course of democratic political activity”, but was “taken to be an immoral act warranting the most severe punishment”. This “seriously undermines democratic freedom of speech,” he added.
The conviction rendered him ineligible, disqualifying him from sitting in parliament and contesting the 2024 general elections, in which Mr Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is given the clear winner. A figurehead of the Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi is a descendant of India’s first political dynasty. He is the son of Rajiv (and Sonia) Gandhi, grandson of Indira Gandhi and great-grandson of independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru, all former prime ministers.
