India: Rahul Gandhi defiant after removal from parliament

The leader of India's opposition, Rahul Gandhi, said on Saturday that his sentencing and disqualification from parliament were due to him poking at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's relationship with the embattled Adani conglomerate.

In a press conference at his Congress party headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday, Gandhi said he was removed from parliament to be silenced on his allegation regarding the infusion of an estimated $3 billion (€2.78 billion) into shell companies owned by the Adani group.

"I have been disqualified because the prime minister is scared of my next speech, he is scared of the next speech that is going to come on Adani,” Gandhi said. "They don't want that speech to be in parliament, that's the issue.”

The 52-year-old opposition leader was sentenced on Thursday to two years in prison. A court found him guilty of defamation over a speech he gave in 2019 in which he referred to people with the surname Modi — such as the current Prime Minister — as thieves.

The court granted him bail and suspended the jail sentence for 30 days, opening a window for appeal.

'I am not scared of them'

The opposition leader told reporters that he would do everything he could "to defend the democratic nature" of India.

"They are used to everybody being scared of them," he said, in reference to the ruling party. "I am not scared of them."

Supporters of the Congress party took to the streets on Friday, rejecting Gandhi's disqualification from parliament.

Gandhi, the scion of India's most famous political dynasty and the great-grandson of independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru, was set to face Modi at the ballot box next year, an election in which Modi will be seeking his third term in office.

Although Congress dominated politics in post-independence India, their number of elected seats in the lower house has fallen to less than 10%, having been thwarted by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party in the last two elections.

Even before the disqualification of the main opposition party, Modi was expected to win the upcoming general election and remains India's most popular politician.

Why is Gandhi attacking the Adani Group?

Gandhi continued on Saturday his attack on the Adani Group, accusing Modi of helping it get contracts in India, Sri Lanka, and Australia. The opposition lawmaker had already demanded a parliamentary committee probe into the conglomerate.

Adani came under scrutiny after a report by US financial research firm Hindenburg, which accused it of stock price manipulation and fraud. The group dismissed the allegation as an "attack on India." 

Group founder and Chairman Gautam Adani's net worth has skyrocketed nearly 2,000% since Modi became prime minister in 2014, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index. He became among the world's top three richest men, securing contracts for several national projects in various fields.

Modi's rivals have long pointed at his purported ties to the Adani Group, which they say go back to when Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, nearly two decades ago. The state is the hometown of both Modi and Adani.

rmt/wd (AFP, AP, Reuters)