Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday urged Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to reinstate Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's parliament membership at the earliest after the Supreme Court stayed the latter's conviction over 'Modi' surname defamation case on Friday.
"Supreme Court said that it is staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi. What does it mean? It means that he will get the opportunity to participate in the Parliamentary proceedings once again. The speed with which Rahul Gandhi was disqualified, should be the same to reinstate him," Chowdhury told ANI.
The Congress leader earlier on Friday met the speaker Birla and urged him to revoke Gandhi's suspended parliament membership. "I called up the Speaker last night in this connection. Speaker suggested meeting him the next day. As per his suggestion, when I called him up once again this morning, he told me to speak to the Secretary-General and submit the documents to his office. I called up the Secretary-General who said that his office is closed today and told me to submit the letter to the Speaker...I sent the letter by post. They signed the letter but did not stamp it. When he has been granted relief by the court, we are requesting the speaker to see that he faces no issue in coming back," he said.
{{/usCountry}}The Congress leader earlier on Friday met the speaker Birla and urged him to revoke Gandhi's suspended parliament membership. "I called up the Speaker last night in this connection. Speaker suggested meeting him the next day. As per his suggestion, when I called him up once again this morning, he told me to speak to the Secretary-General and submit the documents to his office. I called up the Secretary-General who said that his office is closed today and told me to submit the letter to the Speaker...I sent the letter by post. They signed the letter but did not stamp it. When he has been granted relief by the court, we are requesting the speaker to see that he faces no issue in coming back," he said.
{{/usCountry}}Chowdhury further clarified that he is not nurturing any sort of suspicion on the speaker but claimed that the speed at which Rahul Gadhi was disqualified is not evident so far in reinstating his membership.
"I am not nurturing any sort of suspicion. I have simply depicted to you the efforts taken from our end in order to restore Gandhi's membership of the Parliament. He is an elected personality and entitled to join the Parliament when it is in session and when the issues which bear importance are being discussed in the Parliament. Yesterday also we said that the speed which was adopted during his disqualification is not evident so far in reinstating," he said.
The Supreme Court on Friday, in an interim order, stayed the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case over 'Modi surname' remark. On March 23, the magisterial court convicted Gandhi for his remarks made during 2019 Lok Sabha poll campaign.
"No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.
Former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed the case against Rahul Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Karnataka Kolar in 2019.
Following conviction, the former Congress president was disqualified as the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala's Wayanad, on March 24 following notification of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, under the rigours of the Representation of People Act.