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Congress leader and Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, has been summoned by a special MP-MLA court in Lucknow for his alleged derogatory comments about the Indian Army during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. He is required to appear before the court in the last week of March.
The defamation case was filed by Uday Shankar Srivastava, a former director of the Border Roads Organization (BRO). The complaint stems from remarks made by Mr. Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in December 2022.
Mr. Gandhi had reportedly said that “Chinese soldiers are beating up Indian Army personnel in Arunachal Pradesh,” criticizing the government over its handling of the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). His comments triggered widespread backlash and a major political controversy.
Several BJP leaders condemned Mr. Gandhi’s statements, labeling them as anti-national. They also accused his family of benefiting from Chinese funding through the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. Despite the criticism, Mr. Gandhi continued his sharp attacks on the government regarding the China issue.
This is not the first time Mr. Gandhi has faced legal challenges. In March 2023, he was briefly disqualified from Parliament after being convicted in a defamation case related to remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname. A Gujarat court had sentenced him to two years in prison, the minimum duration required for automatic disqualification from Parliament.
The Supreme Court later provided relief by staying the conviction, noting that the trial court had imposed the maximum sentence of two years. The court remarked that if the sentence had been even a day shorter, it would not have triggered disqualification.
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