Rahul, The First ‘Gandhi’ Who Disqualified As an MP After Conviction, Big Blow To The ‘Autocratic’ Party of Democracy?

Rahul Gandhi, the future of the Gandhi family and Indian National Congress has been disqualified as a member of Lok Sabha from Wayanad owing to his conviction in the 2019 defamation case where he ‘insulted’ the ‘Modi’ surname.
Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, says that the moment a member of parliament is convicted of any offense and sentenced for at least two years, she or he attracts disqualification.
Though Mr. Gandhi got immediate relief in the form of bail, his conviction in the case and two years imprisonment stand as punishment he hasn’t been acquitted of. The same turned everything topsy-turvy in the corridors of parliament and the house witnessed something Congress would never have imagined.

Rahul Gandhi – Congress MP from Wayanad, Kerala – disqualified as a Member of Lok Sabha following his conviction in the criminal defamation case over his ‘Modi surname’ remark. pic.twitter.com/SQ1xzRZAot

— ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2023

How did Rahul Gandhi disqualify?

The Supreme Court of India in Lily Thomas Vs Union of India ruled that any Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) or Legislative Council (MLC) who is convicted of a crime and given a minimum of two years of imprisonment, loses membership of the house with immediate effect.
The then law minister, Kapil Sibal, in an attempt to overturn this decision, introduced a second amendment to the Representation of the People Bill in 2013 and proposed that representatives would not be disqualified immediately. On the 24th of September, a few days before the fodder scam verdict, the govt. tried to bring this bill into effect as an ordinance. However, it was Rahul Gandhi who labeled this ordinance as complete nonsense and said it should be torn up and thrown away.
As fate would have it, today, the very same Rahul Gandhi disqualified owing to his conviction in the 2019 Surat case.

Other renowned leaders who disqualified

While Rahul is the only ‘Gandhi’ who has been disqualified as an MP via the Representation of the People Act, there are many other prominent leaders who have already made it to the red list – former AIDMK chief J. Jayalalithaa, Rasheed Masood (Congress MP for Rajya Sabha), Lalu Prasad Yadav (RJD chief), and the list goes on.

BIG Blow to Indian National Congress?

The ‘autocratic’ party of the world’s largest democracy has a PM face, the face that’s a dream of Sonia Gandhi, the face that largely impacted Manmohan Singh’s government before 2014, the face that Congress is keen to ‘deploy’ as prime minister since ages. Today, the very same face got disqualified as an MP.
Considering the forthcoming general elections of 2024, the oldest party that primarily chooses to run on heredity would certainly take every possible step to challenge this decision. They may appeal before the High Court and the apex court and there are chances of Gandhi’s acquittal.

Rahul lost a surname game!

Is the acquittal of Rahul Gandhi in this case going to help the political party score a few seats? Assembly elections happened right in the middle of the Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign and if we look at the results, it has barely helped Congress gain anything. Rather, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi’s visit to Kashmir was used as tourism promotion in Kashmir by the government that kept chanting for years that the territory is a better place now after the abrogation of article 370.
Rahul’s disqualification seems to have made an addition to his image of being less impactful even after having everything served up on a plate with the surname Gandhi.
Nobody would have imagined that a surname may harm the so-called most eligible candidate of Congress, even if it’s someone else’s.