A court in India has found the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation for a remark implying the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi , was a criminal.
On Thursday, Gandhi, 52, was sentenced to two years in prison but was granted bail after his lawyers announced their intention to appeal.
The case stemmed from a remark made during the 2019 election campaign in which Gandhi, the leading face of the Congress party, had asked why “all thieves have Modi as [their] common surname”.
Modi’s government has been widely accused of using the law to target and silence critics, and the case in his home state of Gujarat is one of several lodged against Gandhi in recent years.
Gandhi’s comments were seen as a slur against the prime minister, who went on to win the election in a landslide.
Members of the government said the remark was also a smear against all those people whose surname was Modi, which is associated with the lower rungs of India’s traditional caste hierarchy.
“If you are going to insult the entire Modi surname, this is completely defamatory,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, a lawmaker for the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), told reporters.
“There was a proper hearing. He got an opportunity to present his side of things. The decision has been taken according to the due judicial process.”
Gandhi’s lawyer BM Mangukiya said his client had not meant to insult anyone.
“When the magistrate asked Gandhi what he had to say in his defence, the Congress leader said he was fighting to expose corruption in the country,” Mangukiya told reporters outside the court. “His comments were not meant to hurt or insult any community.”
Gandhi is the son, grandson and great-grandson of a dynasty of former Indian prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru. But he has struggled to challenge the electoral juggernaut of Modi and its nationalist appeals to the country’s Hindu majority.
Gandhi was greeted by supporters when he arrived ay court for the verdict on Thursday. He faces at least two other defamation cases elsewhere in the country.
He is also on bail in long-running money-laundering case. He denies any financial impropriety.
