Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi (in white) with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at the party headquarters in New Delhi on 4 August, 2023, after the Supreme Court suspended his defamation conviction. Photo: AFP/ Arun Sankar
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has returned to parliament for the first time since he was convicted in a criminal defamation case.
The Congress party leader lost his lawmaker status in March after he was sentenced to two years in jail.
He was reinstated as an MP on Monday, two days after the Supreme Court suspended his conviction.
Congress leaders celebrated his return by shouting slogans and distributing sweets outside parliament.
Leaders of other opposition parties also expressed their joy over Gandhi's return to parliament.
Gandhi is a Congress party MP from Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala.
Political observers said his reinstatement as a lawmaker was a boost for INDIA - an alliance formed by 26 opposition parties - as it meant that Gandhi could contest the national election next year. The alliance hopes to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the election.
The case against Gandhi was filed over comments he made about Modi's surname in a 2019 election rally.
His conviction and disqualification sparked protests from opposition parties, which accused the governing BJP of targeting him. The BJP had denied this, saying due judicial process was followed in the case.
Speaking at a rally in Karnataka state in 2019, Gandhi had said: "Why do all these thieves have Modi as their surname? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi."
Nirav Modi is a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon while Lalit Modi is a former chief of the Indian Premier League who was banned for life by the country's cricket board.
BJP lawmaker Purnesh Modi filed a defamation case against Gandhi, alleging that the comments had defamed the entire Modi community. Gandhi had argued that he made the comment to highlight corruption and it was not directed against any community.
He was convicted by a court in Gujarat state in March and sentenced to two years in jail. He lost his MP status a day after his conviction - in accordance with a 2013 Supreme Court order which said that a lawmaker convicted in a crime and sentenced to two or more years in jail stood disqualified from parliament with immediate effect.
The court then granted Gandhi bail to appeal against his conviction and in July, the Gujarat high court dismissed his appeal.
But on Friday, the Supreme Court suspended his conviction, saying that the reasons given by the trial court judge for giving the maximum punishment of two years to Gandhi were "without sufficient reasons and grounds".
It also said that the Congress leader should have been more careful while making the remarks.
- This story was first published by BBC
