NEW DELHI - India’s Parliament disqualified the leader of the opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, a day after a magistrate’s court jailed him for two years in a defamation case linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname.

Gandhi “stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha”, a Parliament notice said, referring to the Lower House of Parliament.

The disqualification makes Gandhi, a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, less viable as a leader of any opposition coalition before elections that may be held around April 2024. 

“I am fighting for the voice of India, I am ready to pay any cost,” Gandhi, 52, tweeted hours after his disqualification. He was found guilty for a 2019 speech in which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi. He plans to appeal.

He made the comment while campaigning ahead of the last general election in which Prime Minister Modi and his ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept back to power. 

The court case was filed by a member of Mr Modi’s ruling party, Mr Purnesh Modi, who focused on a comment Gandhi made in the 2019 speech when he was referring to two fugitive businessmen, both surnamed Modi.  “How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?” Gandhi had asked. 

The court granted him bail and suspended the sentence for a month.

Some of Gandhi’s allies said the court ruling was politically motivated.  A Gandhi aide said the leader would abide by the order. Gandhi did not enter Parliament on Friday during house proceedings.

He was at the official residence of his mother Sonia Gandhi, who is the longest-serving president of the Congress party at the time the Parliament notice became public, said two Congress lawmakers. 

A Congress lawmaker said that “he will have to vacate his official residence but every MP gets 30 days to relocate”, adding that legal experts in the party were gearing up to file an appeal in a higher court.

Gandhi risks being barred from contesting the national polls if the higher court does not stay his conviction or reduce his prison time. India’s laws do not allow people sentenced to jail for two years or more to take part in electoral contests for six years.

Several Congress lawmakers and leaders of regional opposition parties said Gandhi was being punished for speaking the truth and safeguarding democracy. “We will fight against the injustice legally and politically,” said Mr Jairam Ramesh, a Congress lawmaker.”

Congress members held protests against Gandhi’s disqualification in the eastern and northern parts of the country and plan to continue demonstrations across India.

The once-dominant Congress controls less than 10 per cent of the elected seats in Parliament’s Lower House and has been decimated by the BJP in two successive general elections, most recently in 2019 under Gandhi’s leadership. Congress lawmaker Pradip Bhattacharya from West Bengal state said the BJP saw Gandhi as a threat. 

“The BJP is fearful about the rise of Rahul Gandhi and he poses a direct threat to the Modi government,” he said.

BJP president J.P. Nadda dismissed the charges, and said Gandhi had insulted a section of Indians who happen to share the same surname as Prime Minister Modi. He told Reuters: “It is one thing to question government regarding the policies, that would be considered a healthy debate, but clearly the Congress has never followed such rules.”  

There is much at stake for the Congress party. It is trying to build momentum for a parliamentary debate on Mr Modi’s alleged links to billionaire Gautam Adani, who has been battling allegations of fraud and market manipulation from a US short-seller.

Mr Adani’s conglomerate has denied the report. 

The BJP, which controls Parliament, has rejected the opposition’s demand for a parliamentary panel to probe the allegations against the tycoon and his stable of companies. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG