Irish Examiner View: Fresh worry for Indian democracy

The defamtion conviction of Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has enraged many, and could see him excluded from future elections.

India's opposition Congress party activists hold placards during a silent protest in support of their leader Rahul Gandhi in Mumbai, India, last Sunday, March 26, 2023. Gandhi was expelled from Parliament a day after a court convicted him of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison for mocking the surname Modi in an election speech. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool / AP

The conviction last week of Indian opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, on charges of defaming the country’s prime minister Narendra Modi, and his subsequent expulsion from parliament, has raised fears once again that the ruling party is using the law to silence any opposition in the country.

Gandhi, the son of the late Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, both former leaders of the Indian Congress Party, grandson of the country’s first female leader, Indira Gandhi, and great-grandson of India’s founding prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, had stood accused of defaming the prime minister when asking “why do all thieves have the surname Modi.”

His remarks had been made in Modi’s home state of Gujarat in 2019 during an election campaign, when he compared Modi with convicted economic offenders such as Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, and his prosecution was pursued by the prime minister’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Although he has appealed last week’s conviction, the BJP nevertheless expelled Gandhi from parliament, in a move opposition figures and rights groups claimed was an example of the party using the law to target and intimidate critics.

Gandhi’s political stock had almost evaporated after the 2019 election when the BJP easily won a majority but, after undertaking what was called the Bharat Jodo Yatra, a 4,000km ‘march to unite India’ in the past seven months, his popularity has soared, making him a BJP target.

India's opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi. Picture: Ajit Solanki / AP

Though his conviction enraged many, it also sparked legal experts to question how defamation — usually only actionable against individuals — was used to convict Gandhi of a crime against a generic class of people. 

If his conviction stands after appeal, he will be unable to contest future elections. It is no coincidence Gandhi has raised hackles in the BJP for demanding scrutiny of Modi’s relationship with powerful industrialist Gautam Adani, recently accused of “brazen” corporate fraud by a US investment firm.

The prime minister’s continued deployment of legal actions against those who oppose to him, and to intimidate the press, is a worrying trend in the world’s most populous democracy.