India’s Supreme Court suspends Rahul Gandhi’s defamation conviction

India’s Supreme Court has granted opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi relief by suspending his conviction in a defamation case. This order allows him to return to parliament and participate in the upcoming national elections. The defamation case was filed against Gandhi by Purnesh Modi, a legislator from Gujarat belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), over remarks Gandhi made in 2019 questioning why “all thieves have Modi as [their] common surname.”

Despite Gandhi referring to three unrelated individuals with the surname Modi, including the Prime Minister, the comments were deemed insulting to Narendra Modi and others with the same surname, which holds significance in India’s caste hierarchy. The lower court had sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail, leading to his disqualification from parliament. However, the Supreme Court found that the lower court had not provided sufficient reasons for the maximum sentence, leading to the suspension of his conviction.

While acknowledging that Gandhi’s comments were not in good taste and should have been more carefully phrased, the Supreme Court emphasized that the conviction not only penalized Gandhi but also affected the voters who elected him to represent their constituency. In response to the verdict, Congress members celebrated at the party headquarters in New Delhi, while the BJP, to which Purnesh Modi belongs, had no immediate reaction to the ruling. With this development, Rahul Gandhi’s political future is likely to be restored, and he is set to rejoin the political arena.