Labeling his disqualification from the Lok Sabha as a âpanic reactionâ of the government, which was afraid of his ânext speechâ on industrialist Gautam Adani in Parliament, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi called it the âbest giftâ the government could give him. With Youth Congress cadres raising slogans on the lawns of the partyâs headquarters at 24, Akbar Road in the capital, and facing a packed hall of media persons, Mr. Gandhi addressed a 30 minute-long press conference where he underlined the âclose relationshipâ between Mr. Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alluding to a direct connection between the ruling party and the alleged fraudulent financial transactions in Mr. Adaniâs shell companies. Mr. Gandhi dismissed his âdisqualificationâ as a non-event, insisting that he would continue his work of speaking the truth whether he is inside or outside Parliament. âPlease understand why I have been disqualified... I have been disqualified because the Prime Minister is scared of my next speech on Adani, I have seen it in his eyes. He is terrified of the next speech and he doesnât want my next speech to be in Parliament,â Mr. Gandhi said. That is why, he added, the BJP had first tried to âdistractâ by raising his alleged âanti-Indiaâ narrative in London, and then came the âdisqualificationâ. Raising the rhetorical stakes, he declared that he would not be cowed by a âprison termâ. The âdramaâ, as he described it, began with his speech in Parliament delivered on February 7 as part ofthe Motion of Thanks on the Presidentâs Address where the Wayanad MP had asked a set of questions to the government. âI asked Prime Minister very specific set of questions. My question was, ââ¹20,000 crore or $3 billion that came into the shell companies owned by Mr. Adani. Mr Adani could not have generated this money, he is in infrastructure business. Where did this money come from, whose money is it?â,â he said. Mr. Gandhi claimed that the government was rattled by the evidence that he produced on the floor of the House about Mr. Modiâs relationship with Mr. Adani, including the photographs of them flying together in aircraft owned by the Adani group. His speech was expunged from the parliamentary record.. This was followed with the âdistractionâ, as he labelled it, of blaming him for making âanti-Indiaâ statements in London. âBJP Ministers lied about me in Parliament. They made statements to distract from the Adani issue. The whole game â disqualification and other statements â is to distract from the central question on âWhose money is it?â They claim that I asked foreign forces to help India, most ridiculous statement. I have never made such a statement. You can look at all the conversations I had in United Kingdom, not one such statement was made. In fact, I said that it is Indiaâs problem and India has to resolve it,â he added. The Congress leader claimed that he was not allowed to counter the allegations made by the Ministers on the floor of the House, despite his repeated appeals to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla. Mr. Birla, he said, told him outright that he could not be allowed to speak. Supreme Court urged to remove criminal defamation as grounds for automatic disqualification of lawmakers A Ph.D. student from Kerala on March 25 urged the Supreme Court to remove âcriminal defamationâ as a ground to âautomaticallyâ expel parliamentarians. Aabha Muralidharan said parliamentarians are the voice of the people they represent. Their expulsion has a âchilling effect on the right of representationâ of their constituents. The petitioner, represented by advocates Deepak Prakash and Sriram Parakkat, said the immediate reason for her petition is the âautomatic disqualificationâ of Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday, within 24 hours of a Surat court finding him guilty of criminal defamation for his comment âwhy all thieves have Modi surnameâ. Mr. Gandhi was sentenced to two yearsâ imprisonment. He was disqualified the very next day, on March 24, on the basis of a 2013 verdict of the Supreme Court in Lily Thomas versus Union of India. This judgment had laid down that a prison sentence of not less than two years would attract the immediate disqualification of a lawmaker under the Representation of People Act, 1951. âThe offence of criminal defamation must be excepted from the sweep of the judgment in Lily Thomas⦠The freedom of speech and expression enjoyed by a Member of the Parliament is an extension of the voice of millions of his supporters. If criminal defamation, which technically has a maximum punishment of only two years, is not removed from the sweeping effect of the judgment in Lily Thomas, it will have a chilling effect on the right of representation of the citizens,â Ms. Muralidharan argued in her petition. She pointed out that the Constitution makers had never intended to use criminal defamation as a âreasonable restrictionâ on free speech. âWhile the First Amendment to the Constitution was brought in 1951, it did not specifically include criminal defamation in Article 19 (2) as a reasonable restriction to the freedom of speech and expression,â the petition contended. It said the âautomatic disqualificationâ operates like a blanket ban. It does not distinguish between bailable and non-bailable or cognisable and non-cognisable offences categorised by the Code of Criminal Procedure. âThe operations of Lily Thomas are being blatantly misused for wreaking personal vengeance in political parties. The present scenario provides a blanket disqualification, irrespective of the nature, gravity, and seriousness of the offences, allegedly against the Member concerned,â the petition said. The âautomaticâ disqualification stands against the principles of natural justices since various convictions are reversed at the appellate stage, and under such circumstances, the valuable time of a lawmaker discharging his duties towards the public at large would be rendered futile. âFactors like nature, gravity, role, moral turpitude and the role of the accused ought to be examined while considering disqualification under the 1951 Act,â the petition said. BJP will launch a nationwide campaign against Rahul Gandhi for insulting the Backward Classes: Ravi Shankar Prasad Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and accused him of âdistracting from the issueâ. Mr. Prasad alleged that Mr. Gandhi had âthoughtfullyâ insulted people belonging to the Backward Classes. âRahul Gandhi has been punished for his act of 2019 and today he says that he speaks thoughtfully. This means that what he said in 2019 was [said] thoughtfully. He said, âwhy are all Modis thieves?â In north India, people of the Modi community are a Backward and Extremely Backward Class and they are large in number. He [Rahul Gandhi] has insulted the people of the backward community. He has the right to criticise but not to abuse anyone. There are seven other defamation cases against Rahul Gandhi. There is no correlation between todayâs Adani row and the sentence given by the court,â Mr. Prasad said at the BJPâs Patna office during a media interaction. Mr. Prasad further said that the BJP will launch a nationwide campaign against Mr. Gandhi for insulting the Backward Classes. The senior BJP leader raised the question of why Mr. Gandhi had not taken the help of advocates that âthe Congress has in large numbersâ. He alleged that the Congress had not pleaded in Mr. Gandhiâs defence in the Surat court in order to secure advantage in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. Mr. Prasad gave the example of Congress leader Pawan Khera, who secured a stay order from the Supreme Court within an hour recently. âDoes Rahul Gandhi want to become a martyr by cutting his nails? The BJP is of the opinion that the Congress party did not take the help of any advocate to put a stay on the order to get the advantage in the Karnataka Assembly polls by raising the issue of Rahul Gandhi. It is well-planned to project Rahul Gandhi as a leader who sacrificed his membership to get the benefit in Karnataka polls,â Mr. Prasad claimed. Current COVID-testing levels insufficient as compared to WHO standards in some States: Health Ministry The Health Ministry on Saturday warned that at a time when the country was registering a sustained increase in the trajectory of COVID-19 cases (since mid-February) in some States, COVID-19 testing had declined. Worryingly, the current testing levels are insufficient as compared to the standards prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) i.e 140 tests/ million. In its advisory, the Ministry said that testing at the level of districts and blocks also varied, with some States heavily relying on the less sensitive rapid antigen tests. âIt is critical to maintain optimum testing for COVID-19 to identify any emerging hotspots and take pre-emptive steps to curb virus transmission,ââ said the advisory. According to the Ministry as on date, most of the active COVID-19 cases in the country were largely being reported by a few States â Kerala (26.4%), Maharashtra (21.7%), Gujarat (13.9%), Karnataka (8.6%) and Tamil Nadu (6.3%). The Ministry has directed the States to take stock of hospital preparedness including drugs, beds including lCU beds, medical equipment, medical oxygen, capacity building of human resources on existing guidelines, as well as vaccination coverage. Meanwhile, a nationwide mock drill is being planned on April 1O and 11, 2023, wherein health facilities (both public and private) from all districts are expected to participate. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in the advisory, said that while the rates of hospitalisation and death due to the disease remained low largely because of the significant coverage achieved in terms of COVID-19 vaccination rates by all States/ UTs, this gradual rise in cases needed reinvigorated public health actions to contain the surge. States/ UTs have been asked to keep a close watch on the evolving etiologies (causes of diseases) of influenza-like illness (lLl) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) cases. Karnataka Assembly elections 2023 | Congress announces first list of candidates Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, former Union Minister H.K. Muniyappa, KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, former KPCC president G. Parameshwara, and veteran leader Shamanur Shivashankrappa are among those who have found their names in the first list of 124 candidates released by the Congress on Saturday for elections to Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Karnataka will go to polls in April-May 2023, and the Election Commission of India is yet to announce the poll dates. Siddaramaiah will be contesting from Varuna constituency in Mysuru district, represented by his son Yathindra in the present Assembly. Mr. Yathindraâs name was missing from the first list. There was much speculation on his choice of constituency. Siddaramaiah contested from Badami in the 2018 Assembly elections. The party has not announced the candidate for Kolar seat, from where Siddaramaiah had shown interest to contest polls. The candidate from Badami too has not been announced. Darshan Dhruvanarayan, son of former KPCC working president Dhruvanarayan who passed away recently, has been named from Nanjangud (SC) in Chamarajanagar district. Four-time MLC Puttanna, who quit the BJP a few days ago and joined the Congress, will be contesting from Rajajinagar in Bengaluru. He will be fighting against BJP veteran and former Minister S. Suresh Kumar. In Brief: Amid fears of contagion effects from banking crises in the U.S. and Europe, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked banks to remain vigilant about âinterest rate risksâ and undertake regular stress tests, even as public sector bankers assured her all possible steps are being taken to safeguard themselves from any potential financial shock. Ms. Sitharaman, chairing a review of public sector banksâ (PSBs) performance on March 25, also urged banks to try attracting more deposits now that the government has reduced âthe tax arbitrage in some debt instrumentsâ, hinting at the Finance Bill changes to strip some of the tax benefits that are available to debt mutual funds from April 1. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 25 March 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( I have been disqualified because PM Modi is scared of my next speech on Adani: Rahul Gandhi Labeling his disqualification from the Lok Sabha as a âpanic reactionâ of the government, which was afraid of his ânext speechâ on industrialist Gautam Adani in Parliament, former Congress president [Rahul Gandhi called it the âbest giftâ the government could give him](. With Youth Congress cadres raising slogans on the lawns of the partyâs headquarters at 24, Akbar Road in the capital, and facing a packed hall of media persons, Mr. Gandhi addressed a 30 minute-long press conference where he underlined the âclose relationshipâ between Mr. Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alluding to a direct connection between the ruling party and the alleged fraudulent financial transactions in Mr. Adaniâs shell companies. Mr. Gandhi dismissed his âdisqualificationâ as a non-event, insisting that he would continue his work of speaking the truth whether he is inside or outside Parliament. âPlease understand why I have been disqualified... I have been disqualified because the Prime Minister is scared of my next speech on Adani, I have seen it in his eyes. He is terrified of the next speech and he doesnât want my next speech to be in Parliament,â Mr. Gandhi said. That is why, he added, the BJP had first tried to âdistractâ by raising his alleged âanti-Indiaâ narrative in London, and then came the âdisqualificationâ. Raising the rhetorical stakes, he declared that he would not be cowed by a âprison termâ. The âdramaâ, as he described it, began with his speech in Parliament delivered on February 7 as part ofthe Motion of Thanks on the Presidentâs Address where the Wayanad MP had asked a set of questions to the government. âI asked Prime Minister very specific set of questions. My question was, ââ¹20,000 crore or $3 billion that came into the shell companies owned by Mr. Adani. Mr Adani could not have generated this money, he is in infrastructure business. Where did this money come from, whose money is it?â,â he said. Mr. Gandhi claimed that the government was rattled by the evidence that he produced on the floor of the House about Mr. Modiâs relationship with Mr. Adani, including the photographs of them flying together in aircraft owned by the Adani group. His speech was expunged from the parliamentary record.. This was followed with the âdistractionâ, as he labelled it, of blaming him for making âanti-Indiaâ statements in London. âBJP Ministers lied about me in Parliament. They made statements to distract from the Adani issue. The whole game â disqualification and other statements â is to distract from the central question on âWhose money is it?â They claim that I asked foreign forces to help India, most ridiculous statement. I have never made such a statement. You can look at all the conversations I had in United Kingdom, not one such statement was made. In fact, I said that it is Indiaâs problem and India has to resolve it,â he added. The Congress leader claimed that he was not allowed to counter the allegations made by the Ministers on the floor of the House, despite his repeated appeals to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla. Mr. Birla, he said, told him outright that he could not be allowed to speak. Supreme Court urged to remove criminal defamation as grounds for automatic disqualification of lawmakers A Ph.D. student from Kerala on March 25 urged the Supreme Court [to remove âcriminal defamationâ as a ground to âautomaticallyâ expel parliamentarians](. Aabha Muralidharan said parliamentarians are the voice of the people they represent. Their expulsion has a âchilling effect on the right of representationâ of their constituents. The petitioner, represented by advocates Deepak Prakash and Sriram Parakkat, said the immediate reason for her petition is the âautomatic disqualificationâ of Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday, within 24 hours of a Surat court finding him guilty of criminal defamation for his comment âwhy all thieves have Modi surnameâ. Mr. Gandhi was sentenced to two yearsâ imprisonment. He was disqualified the very next day, on March 24, on the basis of a 2013 verdict of the Supreme Court in Lily Thomas versus Union of India. This judgment had laid down that a prison sentence of not less than two years would attract the immediate disqualification of a lawmaker under the Representation of People Act, 1951. âThe offence of criminal defamation must be excepted from the sweep of the judgment in Lily Thomas⦠The freedom of speech and expression enjoyed by a Member of the Parliament is an extension of the voice of millions of his supporters. If criminal defamation, which technically has a maximum punishment of only two years, is not removed from the sweeping effect of the judgment in Lily Thomas, it will have a chilling effect on the right of representation of the citizens,â Ms. Muralidharan argued in her petition. She pointed out that the Constitution makers had never intended to use criminal defamation as a âreasonable restrictionâ on free speech. âWhile the First Amendment to the Constitution was brought in 1951, it did not specifically include criminal defamation in Article 19 (2) as a reasonable restriction to the freedom of speech and expression,â the petition contended. It said the âautomatic disqualificationâ operates like a blanket ban. It does not distinguish between bailable and non-bailable or cognisable and non-cognisable offences categorised by the Code of Criminal Procedure. âThe operations of Lily Thomas are being blatantly misused for wreaking personal vengeance in political parties. The present scenario provides a blanket disqualification, irrespective of the nature, gravity, and seriousness of the offences, allegedly against the Member concerned,â the petition said. The âautomaticâ disqualification stands against the principles of natural justices since various convictions are reversed at the appellate stage, and under such circumstances, the valuable time of a lawmaker discharging his duties towards the public at large would be rendered futile. âFactors like nature, gravity, role, moral turpitude and the role of the accused ought to be examined while considering disqualification under the 1951 Act,â the petition said. BJP will launch a nationwide campaign against Rahul Gandhi for insulting the Backward Classes: Ravi Shankar Prasad Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday [slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi]( and accused him of âdistracting from the issueâ. Mr. Prasad alleged that Mr. Gandhi had âthoughtfullyâ insulted people belonging to the Backward Classes. âRahul Gandhi has been punished for his act of 2019 and today he says that he speaks thoughtfully. This means that what he said in 2019 was [said] thoughtfully. He said, âwhy are all Modis thieves?â In north India, people of the Modi community are a Backward and Extremely Backward Class and they are large in number. He [Rahul Gandhi] has insulted the people of the backward community. He has the right to criticise but not to abuse anyone. There are seven other defamation cases against Rahul Gandhi. There is no correlation between todayâs Adani row and the sentence given by the court,â Mr. Prasad said at the BJPâs Patna office during a media interaction. Mr. Prasad further said that the BJP will launch a nationwide campaign against Mr. Gandhi for insulting the Backward Classes. The senior BJP leader raised the question of why Mr. Gandhi had not taken the help of advocates that âthe Congress has in large numbersâ. He alleged that the Congress had not pleaded in Mr. Gandhiâs defence in the Surat court in order to secure advantage in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. Mr. Prasad gave the example of Congress leader Pawan Khera, who secured a stay order from the Supreme Court within an hour recently. âDoes Rahul Gandhi want to become a martyr by cutting his nails? The BJP is of the opinion that the Congress party did not take the help of any advocate to put a stay on the order to get the advantage in the Karnataka Assembly polls by raising the issue of Rahul Gandhi. It is well-planned to project Rahul Gandhi as a leader who sacrificed his membership to get the benefit in Karnataka polls,â Mr. Prasad claimed. Current COVID-testing levels insufficient as compared to WHO standards in some States: Health Ministry The [Health Ministry on Saturday warned]( that at a time when the country was registering a sustained increase in the trajectory of COVID-19 cases (since mid-February) in some States, COVID-19 testing had declined. Worryingly, the current testing levels are insufficient as compared to the standards prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) i.e 140 tests/ million. In its advisory, the Ministry said that testing at the level of districts and blocks also varied, with some States heavily relying on the less sensitive rapid antigen tests. âIt is critical to maintain optimum testing for COVID-19 to identify any emerging hotspots and take pre-emptive steps to curb virus transmission,ââ said the advisory. According to the Ministry as on date, most of the active COVID-19 cases in the country were largely being reported by a few States â Kerala (26.4%), Maharashtra (21.7%), Gujarat (13.9%), Karnataka (8.6%) and Tamil Nadu (6.3%). The Ministry has directed the States to take stock of hospital preparedness including drugs, beds including lCU beds, medical equipment, medical oxygen, capacity building of human resources on existing guidelines, as well as vaccination coverage. Meanwhile, a nationwide mock drill is being planned on April 1O and 11, 2023, wherein health facilities (both public and private) from all districts are expected to participate. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in the advisory, said that while the rates of hospitalisation and death due to the disease remained low largely because of the significant coverage achieved in terms of COVID-19 vaccination rates by all States/ UTs, this gradual rise in cases needed reinvigorated public health actions to contain the surge. States/ UTs have been asked to keep a close watch on the evolving etiologies (causes of diseases) of influenza-like illness (lLl) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) cases. Karnataka Assembly elections 2023 | Congress announces first list of candidates Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, former Union Minister H.K. Muniyappa, KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, former KPCC president G. Parameshwara, and veteran leader Shamanur Shivashankrappa are among those who have found their names in the [first list of 124 candidates released by the Congress]( on Saturday for elections to Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Karnataka will go to polls in April-May 2023, and the Election Commission of India is yet to announce the poll dates. Siddaramaiah will be contesting from Varuna constituency in Mysuru district, represented by his son Yathindra in the present Assembly. Mr. Yathindraâs name was missing from the first list. There was much speculation on his choice of constituency. Siddaramaiah contested from Badami in the 2018 Assembly elections. The party has not announced the candidate for Kolar seat, from where Siddaramaiah had shown interest to contest polls. The candidate from Badami too has not been announced. Darshan Dhruvanarayan, son of former KPCC working president Dhruvanarayan who passed away recently, has been named from Nanjangud (SC) in Chamarajanagar district. Four-time MLC Puttanna, who quit the BJP a few days ago and joined the Congress, will be contesting from Rajajinagar in Bengaluru. He will be fighting against BJP veteran and former Minister S. Suresh Kumar. In Brief: Amid fears of contagion effects from banking crises in the U.S. and Europe, Finance Minister [Nirmala Sitharaman has asked banks to remain vigilant]( about âinterest rate risksâ and undertake regular stress tests, even as public sector bankers assured her all possible steps are being taken to safeguard themselves from any potential financial shock. Ms. Sitharaman, chairing a review of public sector banksâ (PSBs) performance on March 25, also urged banks to try attracting more deposits now that the government has reduced âthe tax arbitrage in some debt instrumentsâ, hinting at the Finance Bill changes to strip some of the tax benefits that are available to debt mutual funds from April 1. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [Sign up for free]( Todayâs Top Picks [[Boxing | Nitu Ghanghas becomes world champion] Boxing | Nitu Ghanghas becomes world champion](
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