Hyderabad: In a rare moment of solidarity between the BRS and the Congress, Telangana minister KT Rama Rao on Friday condemned the call to disqualify Rahul Gandhi as a Lok Sabha MP after his conviction in a criminal defamation case from 2019.
“Disqualification of @RahulGandhi Ji is a blatant misinterpretation of Constitution The hastiness showed in this issue is highly undemocratic I condemn this!” he tweeted along with a quote from French philosopher Voltaire on Freedom of Expression and ‘First they came..’ poem written by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller on Nazi Germany.
“Shri Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 23 March, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” the Lok Sabha secretariat said in a notification issued on Friday.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that the party will not be intimidated or silenced by the decision to disqualify the Wayanad MP.