On Monday, a spectacle was created by the Congress party as Rahul Gandhi flew from Delhi to Surat to file the appeal against his conviction. He arrived at the court with a bus full of Congress leaders in tow, including sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, CM Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, Sukhvinder Sukhu and several other Rajya Sabha MPs. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi flew in a scheduled commercial flight to reach Surat from Delhi – the same duo that we saw flying charter since they were kids – as if to force the world to believe in their frugality, to believe that they are connected with the ground realities of India, that they are just one of us.
The additional sessions court judge granted bail to Rahul Gandhi till his appeal against his conviction was disposed of. Additional sessions judge Robin Mogera set the date of hearing for 13th April and exempted the Prince from personal appearance – that is having to walk among mere mortals again.
The submissions made by Rahul Gandhi was interestingly, diametrically opposite to the impression that Rahul Gandhi wanted to give by flying commercial. It reaked of elitism and the all pervasive sentiment – ‘Tu jaanta hai main kaun hu?’.
According to Bar & Bench, in his submission, one of Rahul Gandhi’s most prominent arguments spoke about how the judge should have given due credit to his stature. In his submission, Rahul Gandhi says:
“It is therefore expected that the Trial Judge would also be aware of the consequences of awarding a sentence of two years, namely mandatory disqualification. Such disqualification entails the rejection of the mandate of the electorate at one hand and huge burden on the exchequer on the other. It is therefore expected that the Judge would make a mention of a consequence of this nature in the sentencing order.”
Rahul Gandhi in this argument implies that the Judge ‘should have known’ that awarding the punishment that the sessions judge thought fit a convict would have consequences on the life of the convict, and therefore, altered his judgement accordingly.
Essentially, Rahul Gandhi says that the judge, awarding a sentence to him that he deemed fit, went against democracy since it would lead to Rahul Gandhi being disqualified from Lok Sabha and that the judge should have “known” about this consequence. When a judge hands down a conviction and a subsequent sentence to a criminal who has been convicted, he is not particularly obligated to keep in mind how it would affect his career. The argument put forth by Rahul Gandhi is the same as saying that an industrialist should not be sentenced appropriately because his business would suffer. If Rahul Gandhi’s argument is extended, perhaps he should then answer if he thought Lalu Yadav’s conviction in the fodder scam was incorrect because the judge “should have known” that it would affect his political career adversely.
Whether the conviction of Rahul Gandhi itself has legal merit or not is a matter for the court to decide, however, while Rahul Gandhi attempts to project his frugality and ground connect, it is evident from this argument that he expects the judiciary to treat him differently because that is the reality he is accustomed to.
Reading this argument, one is reminded of a statement made by Congress MP Pramod Tiwari while mounting a defenec for Rahul Gandhi and his family. Tiwari said that the law should be different for the Gandhi family in terms of sentencing in a case. He recalled how the Congress leader’s grandmother and father, then Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi ‘sacrificed their lives for the nation’ and suggested that Rahul Gandhi and his family’s background should be taken into account while sentencing.
“Rahul Gandhi’s family should be treated differently by the law. His grandmother and father have sacrificed their lives for the nation. The law must give minimum punishment. BJP is scared that their theft may be caught”, he had said.
Mirzapur, UP | Rahul Gandhi’s family should be treated differently by the law. His grandmother & father have sacrificed their lives for the nation. The law must give minimum punishment. BJP is scared that their theft may be caught: Pramod Tiwari, Congress pic.twitter.com/HKxeCQsQkr
— ANI (@ANI) March 25, 2023
It is clear that Rahul Gandhi and his family believes that they are above the law and the judiciary should bend to cater to their needs. It is precisely this self image that leads to leaders like Pramod Tiwari making outlandish statements, putting the Gandhi family on a pedestal, because that is preisely what is expected of them – a prerequisite to survive in the party.
The appeal does not really stop there. It says, “A summary inquiry was held on the question of appropriate sentence. The issue of grant of probation, which is mandatory in a case like the present one, does not even find a passing reference in the order of sentence and the Ld Trial Court proceeded to award the maximum punishment without giving any adequate opportunity to the parties to assist the Court in this regard.”
Further, immediately on pronouncing Gandhi guilty, without giving him an “opportunity of composing himself”, assessing the situation and consulting the lawyer, the court asked him to make his submissions on the question of sentence.
“The sentencing order does not even show that the Ld Trial Judge took into consideration the fact that the accused was being awarded the maximum permissible sentence of imprisonment.”
Rahul Gandhi seems extremely angry that the court did not wait for HHS Rahul Gandhi to ‘compose himself’ after pronouncing the judgement and asking him to follow the due process of the law immediately, making submissions on the question of sentencing. According to Rahul Gandhi, it is clear that the court should have been cognizant of HHS Rahul Gandhi’s stature and given him time to think (yes, it does take A LOT of time for him to think) before he was compelled to follow the law like mere mortals.
Rahul Gandhi is a part-time politician and a full-time Aristocrat. It is almost as if it is the national priority to ensure that the mind-numbing incompetence of the naked Kind is never exposed and that, no matter what he does, he is never to face consequences for it. From kicking and screaming about democracy being in danger because of PM Narendra Modi, he has graduated to saying democracy is in danger because the judiciary decided to follow the process of the law. Now, whether the verdict itself holds to judicial scrutiny, is something we will know as time passes, however, these two arguments made in the appeal by Rahul Gandhi prove that the Aristocrat and his family will always float several notches above the brown ghulams and even the judiciary is supposed to be cognizant of that fact.
