The Associate Editor of the British daily business newspaper, Financial Times, Edward Luce recently wrote an article on the political developments around the world, including India.
In the article ‘Biden’s awkward democracy summit’, he criticises world leaders and shared an snippet of it on his Twitter account, “…India, which is jailing its opposition leader on a trumped up defamation charge… ”
Luce was talking about Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in recent defamation case following which he was disqualified as an MP. The Surat court, to set an example on how one’s actions and words could have consequences gave Rahul Gandhi highest sentence under the relevant provisions, the judge had said in his observations. However, Luce made it appear like Indian courts following due legal procedures, which he seems completely clueless about, is something he should comment on and pontificate.
To put things in perspective, prior to the Modi government, in 2013 when Congress-led UPA was in power and Rahul Gandhi’s mother Sonia Gandhi was acting like SuperPM to Dr Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi had torn up an ordinance that could have save his disqualification today. The ordinance offered a 3-month protection against disqualification instead of immediate one which is in place currently.
And it is not that Rahul Gandhi was jailed immediately. He was sentenced to two years of imprisonment and was granted bail immediately. The Congress legal team could overturn his disqualification by appealing in higher court and getting a stay order on conviction.
Luce’s lack of knowledge about Indian laws which he commented on so confidently was called out by netizens.
People pointed out what he was asking for in Rahul Gandhi’s case was asking the government to interfere in judiciary, which goes against the principle of democracy. What Rahul Gandhi is facing legal consequences of his actions. The court of law, which is an independent body, served the sentence. To paint it like a political move is undermining the sanctity of judiciary.
Netizens even pointed out how he, as a journalist who is pontificating about democracy, should actually learn to respect judiciary of the world’s largest sovereign democracy.
And really, if the charges were trumped up, how come Rahul Gandhi’s legal team has not filed an appeal in higher court even a week after conviction? Last we heard they were translating order from Gujarati to English. What are Gujarat Congress leaders like Jignesh Mewani and Shaktisinh Gohil doing?
Of course, while in his tweet Luce asserted that India is jailing Rahul Gandhi, after being called out on social media and likely someone informing the editors at FT that this is factually incorrect, the body of the article seems to have now been edited. Instead of asserting that Rahul Gandhi is being sent to jail, the article now reads, he is ‘in process’ of being jailed. It reads, “Among the participants is India, which is in the process of jailing opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on a trumped-up defamation ruling.”
And while Luce wants its otherwise uninformed and biased audience to believe that Rahul Gandhi is first to face disqualification upon conviction, it is not true. Lalu Prasad Yadav, former chief minister of Bihar, was barred from the Lok Sabha in 2013 following his conviction in the fodder scandal. Congress Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood was disqualified after a CBI court found him guilty of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery in the allocation of seats in a Tripura medical college in October 2013. Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), late J Jayalalithaa, was disqualified from the state assembly in September 2014 after being found guilty in a case involving disproportionate assets. At the time of her conviction, she was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu and was forced to resign.
Nobody came crying death of democracy in India when all these disqualifications happened. In fact, law taking its due course strengthens democracy. It just shows law is equal for all so why should Rahul Gandhi be treated differently?
The anti-India propaganda which toes Congress’ line does not end there. Quoting India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s statement last year, “Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems,” he alleged that the former diplomat excluded the US and accused the US President Joe Biden for refusing to mention ‘India’s democratic backsliding.’
He wrote, “Here it gets even muddier. India’s treatment of its Muslim minorities is arguably as bad as China’s policies in Xinjiang. The US state department has labelled the latter ‘genocide,’ the gravest charge possible. Yet barely a peep is heard from Washington about what is going on in Kashmir.” He equated the persecution of Uyghur Muslims living in Xinjiang, China to that of the Muslims living in Kashmir, India, but conveniently didn’t provide any empirical data or evidence in support of any of his outrageous charges.
As Luce tries to paint Muslims in India a victims, at least half a dozen incidents of violence have taken place across India after Muslim mob pelted stones on the Ram Navami procession. Ram Navami is celebrated by Hindus to mark birth of Lord Ram. But for some communal people, these Hindus celebrating their festivals is ‘provocative’ and they resort to violence. Perhaps time to brush up the knowledge one has about India, eh, Luce?
Now, if only the international media houses could keep their racist bias aside while writing on India, even pigs would come home flying.
