Congress president Rahul Gandhi may land in a soup as the BJP is mulling filing a defamation suit against the Gandhi scion for his libellous remarks claiming that Narendra Modi has legislated a law allowing ‘shooting down’ of Tribals. BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha has sent a legal notice to Rahul Gandhi for his defamatory statements against PM Modi.
राष्ट्रीय उपाध्यक्ष व राज्यसभा सांसद श्री @jhaprabhatbjp जी ने @RahulGandhi द्वारा शहडोल में प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi के लिए दिए गए गैर संवेदानिक वक्तव्य से आहत होकर मानहानि का विधित नोटिस प्रेषित किया है। pic.twitter.com/vVwO6zPzRh
— BJP MadhyaPradesh (@BJP4MP) April 28, 2019
The outrageous lie was peddled by Rahul Gandhi during an election rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Shabdol a few days back. Rahul Gandhi in the rally said, “Narendra Modi Sarkar ne ek kanun banaya hai jisme ek line likhi gayi hai ki adivasiyon ko goli se mara ja sakega” (Narendra Modi has passed a law in which a provision has been added that allows shooting down of Tribals).
Rahul Gandhi was referring to the draft of the Indian Forest Act, 2019, which intends to overhaul the Indian Forest Act, 1927. The draft law recommends providing compensation to forest officers using arms to prevent transgressions. Apart from this, Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, also provides immunity for certain categories of public servants.
Interestingly, the same language that was used by Rahul Gandhi is often used by Naxals to brainwash tribals into picking up the weapon. The Naxals often tell Tribals that the government is going to kill them and snatch their ‘Jal, Jungle, Zameen’ away.
Slamming Rahul Gandhi, Jha said, “Congress had 44 MPs in the parliament. Even if we suppose that the law was passed, where were they when the law was being passed in the parliament.” Jha also contended that even Rahul Gandhi is a parliamentarian and if such law had been passed in his presence, why he kept mum until the election season. Jha said that BJP has given three days to Rahul Gandhi to respond, failing which a defamation suit will be filed against him.
The BJP in its legal notice has warned the Congress president that his comments on Narendra Modi are “defamatory, derogatory, lacking verification and without any substance.” The notice further stated that it is the constitutional duty of every parliamentarian including Rahul Gandhi to frame the laws of the country in the interest of citizens of India.
