Workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a protest here on Friday against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his alleged objectionable remarks and asserted that the party will not tolerate if someone talks ill about the country and prime minister.
The BJP's Pune city unit president Jagdish Mulik and other party leaders and workers staged the protest at Goodluck Chowk.
"We will not tolerate if someone talks ill about the country or the prime minister"
"Rahul Gandhi talks ill about Veer Savarkar and uses inappropriate words for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and when he travels out of the country, he talks ill about the country. We will not tolerate if someone talks ill about the country or the prime minister," Mulik said.
The BJP leader further said that Gandhi must apologise, as he had not only insulted Modi, but also the people of the country.
"Yesterday, the court sentenced Gandhi to two years imprisonment. To this, he says he does not have faith in the Indian judiciary. How can he say that?" Mulik said.
Rahul Gandhi disqualified from the Lok Sabha
Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after he was convicted by the Surat court in a 2019 defamation case.
According to the Representation of the People Act, a lawmaker sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more shall be disqualified "from the date of such conviction" and remain disqualified for another six years after serving prison time.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat also declared his constituency in Kerala's Wayanad as vacant.
On Thursday morning, a court in Surat found Rahul Gandhi guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surname. The Congress leader, however, was granted bail and his sentence was suspended for 30 days to allow him to appeal the Surat court verdict.
The case was filed against Rahul Gandhi by BJP MLA and ex-Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi for saying "how come all thieves have the common surname Modi" while campaigning in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
