“It is damaging to Indian democracy”: Shashi Tharoor on move to disqualify Rahul Gandhi

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], March 26 (ANI): Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday wondered whether it was good for the democracy of this country when a principal opposition leader is not allowed to raise his voice in Parliament.

“Is it good for our democracy when the principal opposition leader is not allowed to raise his voice in parliament where we have a PM who speaks to the world about India as the mother of democracy? Is this good for our country”? Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said.
“Let us forget party politics. What is good for our country? This is damaging to India. It is not damaging to Rahul Gandhi,” Tharoor said.

On being asked about Congress’s ongoing Sankalp Satyagraha, Tharoor said, “This (Satyagraha) is not just about congress party or Rahul Gandhi, this is about Indian democracy”.

The Congress is holding Sankalp Satyagraha at Raj Ghat. Priyanka Gandhi arrived at Raj Ghar for the protest on Sunday. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, party general secretary KC Venugopal and several other party leaders also joined the protest.

Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha, a day after a Surat court sentenced him to two years imprisonment in a defamation case filed against him over his ‘Modi surname’ remark.

The decision came pertaining to his remark made in April 2019, where he had said “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname” at a Lok Sabha election rally at Kolar in Karnataka.

The court approved Gandhi’s bail on a surety and stayed the sentence for 30 days to allow him to approach the higher courts. After being convicted in the defamation case and subsequently disqualified from Lok Sabha, Gandhi, hit out BJP.

While addressing a press conference, Gandhi said that he is not scared of going to prison and his disqualification from Parliament was aimed at distracting people from the Adani issue.