Updated on: 27 March 2023 11:47 IST | Mumbai
S S Nadar | news@debotimes.in

The Indian Overseas Congress held a protest against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as an MP in London.

The Indian Overseas Congress held a protest against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as an MP in London by the Gandhi statue in London’s Parliament Square, calling the Centre’s move ‘undemocratic’, ‘unconstitutional’, and ‘unparliamentary’.

“Disqualifying Rahul Gandhi is an attempt to instil fear in people to show that anything can happen if you go against the government, or the BJP. His sentencing in the 2019 defamation case over the Modi surname remark was maximized so that he could be disqualified. This is an act to distract the nation from the Adani issue,” said Kamal Dhaliwal, the Indian Overseas Congress chief.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Friday disqualified Gandhi as MP from Wayanad in Kerala, a day after the Surat court convicted him in the 2019 criminal defamation case for his remark, "How come to all thieves have Modi as the common surname?"

“We from the Indian diaspora and the Congress feel this is undemocratic, unconstitutional, and unparliamentary. Freedom of speech is being curbed in India. India is a democracy and Rahul Gandhi should be allowed to put his point in the parliament,” said IOC Secretary Asra Anjum.

About 60 people turned up for the protest where resentment was expressed at the treatment meted out to Rahul Gandhi. Flowers were laid at the feet of Mahatma Gandhi, symbolic of the peaceful but forceful movement he ran and the family's association with it.

The IOC said that this was just the beginning, more such protests would be organised on a bigger scale if action against Rahul Gandhi escalated in India.