Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will appear before a court in Gujarat’s Surat city on Thursday when it is expected to deliver its verdict in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his “Modi surname” remarks, party leaders said on Wednesday.

Senior state Congress leaders, including GPCC president Jagdish Thakor, legislature party leader Amit Chavda, AICC in-charge of Gujarat Raghu Sharma and MLAs were in Surat to prepare for Gandhi’s visit to the city.

The case was filed against Gandhi for his alleged “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” remarks on a complaint lodged by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi. The Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad made the alleged remarks while addressing a rally at Kolar in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma had last week concluded hearing final arguments from both sides and set March 23 to pronounce its judgment in the four-year-old defamation case, Gandhi’s lawyer Kirit Panwala said.

“Rahul Gandhi will remain present in the court (on Thursday) when it pronounces its judgment in the criminal defamation case against him. He has made it clear that we respect the court whatever its judgment. We will welcome our leader and show him our support. The Congress cannot be browbeaten with cases like these,” said Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi.

Thakor said Gandhi will land in Surat at around 9 am to appear before the court.

In a tweet, the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president asserted the party will not bow before the “dictatorship of BJP,” and appealed to people to be present in a large number to welcome Gandhi.

This will be the former Congress president’s first visit to Gujarat after the conclusion of his Bharat Jodo Yatra in January.

Gandhi was in Gujarat last to campaign for the Congress for the December 2022 Assembly elections. The party won just 17 out of the total 182 seats, its worst poll performance since the formation of the state in 1960.

He had last appeared before the Surat court in the case, filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (dealing with defamation), in October 2021 to record his statement. Before that, the Congress MP had appeared in the court to plead not guilty to charges levelled against him.

In his complaint, BJP MLA Purnesh Modi alleged that Gandhi, while addressing the poll rally in 2019, defamed the entire Modi community by purportedly saying, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” Modi was a minister in the first tenure of the Bhupendra Patel government. The ruling party legislator was re-elected from the Surat West Assembly seat in the December elections.

The final arguments resumed in the case last month after the Gujarat High Court vacated its stay on proceedings imposed on plea by the complainant demanding Gandhi’s personal appearance.

The lawyer for the complainant argued that CDs and pen drive containing the materials on Gandhi’s Kolar speech established that the Congress MP indeed made the Modi surname remarks, and his utterances defamed the community.

Gandhi’s lawyer has argued that the court proceedings were “flawed” from the beginning as procedure laid down under section 202 of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) was not followed. The CrPC section deals with postponement of issue of process.

The lawyer also argued that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and not MLA Purnesh Modi, should have been the complainant in the case because the PM was the main target of Gandhi’s speech.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)

Amid looming corruption charges and concerns over losing out on minority votes, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to start the state government’s ‘Duare Sarkar’ programme in every polling booth ahead of the panchayat elections in May. This initiative will begin on April 1.

In Bengal, the panchayat polls are being looked at as a “semi-final” before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The state government is under a lot of pressure, with corruption allegations in a recruitment scam case and a sense of unease over the loss of minority votes.

Earlier this month, the Trinamool Congress lost the Sagardighi bypoll to Congress candidate Bayron Biswas. Mamata’s party had won this assembly constituency since 2011; the bypoll was necessitated after state minister Subrata Saha’s death in December last year. What was alarming was the fall in the party’s vote share in a seat that has 63 percent Muslim votes.

The TMC government is largely facing these two challenges. Hence, the chief minister has decided to take the government’s flagship ‘Duare Sarkar’ (government services at your doorstep) programme to the booths. This programme started in 2020, where camps were set up at a panchayat level and people unable to avail benefits of government schemes, could bring their grievances here and get their work done.

The major aim of this programme was to reach people at their doorstep, so that they would not have to run from pillar to post trying to get important work done at a government level. These camps were previously held at a panchayat level and the TMC managed to reap massive benefits from it in the 2021 assembly elections. Now, before the panchayat elections, the CM has decided to take it to every booth.

Since its launch in 2020, the state government has held more than 3.71 lakh community-level outreach camps and over 6.77 crore services have been delivered to beneficiaries across Bengal. ‘Duare Sarkar’ has been made part of the administrative calendar for the state government from the 2021-2022 fiscal.

“Now, the state government has decided that, for the benefit of the people and in public interest, the sixth edition of ‘Duare Sarkar’ and ‘Paray Samadhan’ will be held across booths,” a senior officer from the administration said.

Party sources said there were approximately 77,000 booths in West Bengal, and that the government was planning this programme for 20 days so as to reach every booth.

The state government has various social welfare schemes – Swasthya Sathi, Kanyashree Prakalpa (to improve status and well being of girls, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds), Rupashree Prakalpa (financial aid to families who face difficulties in arranging weddings for their daughters), Lakshmir Bhandar (financial support for female head of the family) among others.

Sources said if the Duare Sarkar programme reached every booth, then people who require benefits from such government schemes will get help and the government’s image will improve.

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