On March 26, Indian Youth Congress (IYC) National President Srinivas BV launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha. Srinivas, who had run away from police during a protest in Delhi when Gandhi was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning, conveniently forgot to mention that Rahul Gandhi got disqualified as a Surat court sentenced him to two years in a defamation case.
Calling PM Modi a coward, he said, “Only two cowards were born in India. The first one killed Gandhi, but he could not kill Gandhi’s ideology. One more coward was born in independent India. He disqualified Rahul Gandhi in an attempt to “kill” him. I want to tell these RSS people you keep forgetting you cannot end this Gandhi family and Gandhi’s ideology. The name of Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and MK Gandhi will always live in history.”
Notably, Srinivas projected that the Gandhis have some family connection with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (MK Gandhi), which is untrue. The surname’ Gandhi’ was adopted by Indira Gandhi’s (Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother) husband, Feroze Gandhy.
Interestingly, Srinivas also insinuated that Rahul Gandhi’s conviction by the Court of law was similar to the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi by Nathuram Godse. One is pressed to wonder if the courts would take suo motu cognizance of this statement given that a Congress leader is comparing a judicial verdict to an assassination.
Srinivas ran away from Police during a protest in Delhi
On June 13, 2022, Srinivas literally ran away to evade police arrest during a ruckus caused by Congress supporters outside the Enforcement Directorate offices in Delhi. As a policeman moved in to greet him after he arrived at the ED office in his SUV, the Congress leader made a run for it to avoid getting detained.
Ironically, earlier in the day, while talking to a reporter, Srinivas was saying how he is never afraid of the police and that the Congress party workers would take out a march in support of Rahul Gandhi, who is under the scanner of ED for financial fraud. However, faced with the first policeman he saw, Srinivas decided to make a run for it.
Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha
On March 24, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a criminal defamation case by a Surat court. He was disqualified under section 8(3) of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, which states that any MP or MLA convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of conviction.