India’s parliament disqualified the leader of the opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, a day after a magistrate’s court jailed him for two years in a defamation case linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname.
Gandhi “stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha”, a parliament notice said, referring to the lower house of parliament. Gandhi, 52, was found guilty for a 2019 speech in which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi.
He made the comment while campaigning ahead of the last general election. Gandhi was convicted by a court in the western state of Gujarat, which also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for one month. A close aide to Gandhi said the leader had already adhered with the court order and did not enter parliament on Friday during house proceedings.—Reuters
