"Every Corner Of World Hears Voice Of India": Shashi Tharoor

New Delhi [India]: After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament, party leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday shared remarks from various newspapers through a clip, alleging that Rahul Gandhi was ‘deliberately disqualified’ and said that every corner of the world hears the voice of India.

Sharing a clip from various newspapers on Twitter, highlighting Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as a member of Lok Sabha (MP), Tharoor said, ‘They tried to silence a voice. Now every corner of the world hears the voice of India.’ On Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the date of his conviction in the criminal defamation case over his ‘Modi surname’ remark, March 23.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in the national capital, Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Jairam Ramesh said the BJP-led government was rattled by Rahul Gandhi’s remarks.

‘The issue before us is political, more than it is legal. It is a political issue because it signifies the systematic, repetitive emasculation of democratic institutions by the ruling party. It signifies the strangulation of democracy itself. We know that defamation is an exception to free speech, but over the last several years, we have had repeated examples of unthinkable assaults on freedom of speech, more importantly, freedom from speech. We all know that Rahul Gandhi has been speaking fearlessly inside and outside Parliament. He is paying the price for it,’ Singhvi said.

‘This government is rattled because he clearly speaks with facts and figures on demonetisation. Be it the supposed clean chit to China, or the GST, he is consistently aggressive and open in his questioning. Therefore this government is finding new techniques to throttle his voice,’ Singhvi alleged.

Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification came after the Surat court on Thursday sentenced him to two years imprisonment in a defamation case over his ‘Modi surname’ remark made in 2019 during an election rally in Karnataka.

Rahul Gandhi made the ‘how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname’ remark in April 2019, at a Lok Sabha election rally at Kolar in Karnataka.

Rahul Gandhi was an MP from the seat of Wayanad in Kerala.

The criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi was filed by BJP MLA from Surat West Purnesh Modi.