Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to 2 years in jail by a Surat court on Thursday, over a 2019 criminal defamation case against him. The case pertained to his controversial ‘Modi Surname’ remark, which led to a BJP leader filing the case against him.

Gandhi’s conviction also led to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha, stripping him of his MP title on Friday. The move triggered strong criticism from opposition leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, and Akhilesh Yadav, apart from Congress top brass. However, BJP welcomed the move as leaders Dharmendra Pradhan and Anurag Thakur termed it “lawful”.

But, did you know, this was not the first time Rahul Gandhi landed in trouble due to a defamation case against him? In fact, the Congress leader has faced similar charges six times before, most of them being criminal defamation cases.

Here’s a list of all defamation cases against him.

1. The most recent criminal defamation case that led to his conviction, was related to his “Modi surname” remark, which he had made back in 2019 during a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar district. During an address ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, Gandhi made the remark, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” The remark had sparked controversy back then, alleging defamation and a caste bias by several people.
2. Another very well-known defamation case was filed against him in the National Herald case. He along with his mother Sonia Gandhi was granted bail in December 2015 in the case pursued by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on a personal bond of ₹50,000.
3. On July 6, 2019, Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by a Patna court in another defamation case. Addressing a poll rally in Maharashtra, Gandhi had said, “I have a question. Why all the thieves have Modi in their names whether be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi? We don’t know how many more such Modis will come out.”
4. On July 12, 2019, Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by an Ahmedabad court in a defamation case. The case was filed by the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank after he had alleged that the bank was involved in a scam of swapping banknotes during the demonetisation.
5. On July 4, 2019, Rahul was granted bail by a Mumbai court in a defamation case filed by an RSS worker. This case was filed for his remark linking Gauri Lankesh’s killing with the “BJP-RSS ideology”. The bail was granted on a surety amount of ₹15,000.
6. In November 2016, the Bhiwandi court in Maharashtra had granted bail to Gandhi in another case filed by an RSS worker. In this case, Rahul Gandhi had allegedly said that RSS had killed Mahatma Gandhi. Even the SC had slammed him for such ‘collective’ comment, and had ruled that he will have to face trial and prove his point in the court.
7. The Guwahati court gave bail to Rahul Gandhi in yet another defamation case by RSS in September 2016 on a bond of ₹50,000. The case was filed after Rahul had lied that he was prevented by RSS from entering the Barpeta Satra in Assam in December 2015.

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The past 48 hours showed how the Congress has botched up what could have been its moment.

They allowed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get a headstart, making the entire issue of a casteist remark by the Congress.

The BJP unleashed top ministers who accused Rahul Gandhi of abusing the Other Backward Class (OBC) community. The Congress had only its president, a Dalit himself, to trash this narrative.

But let’s begin with the moments after the verdict came from Surat court on Thursday.

A senior lawyer Congress MP told News18: “The party should have been alerted the day the high court had vacated the stay on this issue. They should have moved the sessions court immediately, but no such attention was paid and the team was back in Delhi. The Congress was again left confused on whether to make the conviction the main issue to attack the BJP. Which it did. But soon the wisdom dawned that this would be seen as taking on courts at a time when they would approach the higher courts for relief.”

Also came the realisation that not all opposition parties, even those who have been with the Congress so far on the Adani issue, would want to support this court issue.

Hence when the Opposition parties met on Friday morning, the issue was not so much the conviction but Adani and Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe. But the Congress could not let go of Gandhi and so it mixed it with misuse of institutions and made a veiled reference to the Surat court issue.

THE MORNING MEETING

But the real botching seemed to come at the morning meeting at Sonia Gandhi’s office, in which Gandhi was present. At the meeting, few leaders suggested that the Congress must pre-empt disqualification and write to the president. But two senior MPs, one who was legally inclined, said that the disqualification would take time as he has 30 days to appeal. It was a bolt from the blue when the speaker’s office issued notification for disqualification.

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It was at the hurriedly called press conference that the party tried to do damage control.

It’s a long legal battle. Protests are planned without attacking the judiciary.

The party now has taken a cue from Gandhi, when he tweeted to say he was ready to give up anything for the sake of truth.

The real fighter and asli challenger is the pitch of the Congress for 2024 with Gandhi being the epicentre. But will he alone be the hand which pulls the Congress to victory in 2024?

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