Lucknow: A court in Uttar Pradesh has directed that a complaint case be registered against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remark that he and his party are fighting not just the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) but “the Indian state itself.”
The order was issued by the court of an Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Lucknow on a complaint filed by an advocate, Live Law reported. The complainant alleged that Gandhi’s statement, made in January during the inauguration of the Congress party’s new headquarters in New Delhi, was “seditious and anti-national.”
The matter will be heard on October 1, when the complainant’s statement is scheduled to be recorded.
At the January event, Gandhi had said: “If you believe we are fighting against a political organization called BJP and RSS, they have captured almost every institution in our country. We are now fighting not just the BJP and RSS, but the Indian state itself.”
The complaint also named Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and other senior leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, who were present at the function.
According to the complainant, Gandhi’s use of the term “Indian state” suggested that he was opposing the Republic of India itself. The petition argued that the Indian state comprises the people, constitutional institutions, Parliament, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, and alleged that his remarks amounted to an attack on the country’s sovereignty, unity and integrity.