Appears before a city court in connection with a defamation case filed by an RSS activist
Rahul Gandhi
A day after he released a statement announcing that he was no longer the president of the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi reiterated his strong resolve to intensify his fight against the ruling BJP and its ideological parent RSS.
"This is a war of ideologies. Ladai jaari rahegi. Jaise pichle 5 saal lada hun na usse 10 guna zyada ladunga. (The fight will continue. I will fight 10 times harder than I did in the past five years)," he told reporters in Mumbai on Thursday. He was in city to appear before a court in connection with a defamation case filed by an RSS activist.
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Rahul said he was enjoying the aakraman (attack) on him. He also said that he was with the "poor, the farmers and the labourers," he added.
RSS activist and lawyer Dhrutiman Joshi had filed the defamation suit in 2017 over Rahul's statement blaming the BJP-RSS ideology for the gruesome killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh. Police arrested several right-wing activists after two bike-borne men shot Lankesh outside her house in Bengaluru, killing her on the spot, in September 2017.
Responding to questions about the court proceedings, Rahul said he did not speak in the court, however, sources said he pleaded 'not guilty' and secured a bail on a bond of R15,000. Former local MP Eknath Gaikwad stood as surety for Rahul before the Mazgaon metropolitan magistrate's court.
Joshi had named then Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, CPI(M) and the party's general secretary Sitaram Yechury in the suit. The court had, however, dismissed the charges against Sonia and CPI(M), saying parties cannot be taken to court for comments of individuals.
Hours after Lankesh's murder, Rahul had said that anybody who spoke against the ideologies of BJP and RSS was pressured, attacked and even killed. Yechury, on the others hand, had claimed that RSS's members had killed the journalist, who was known for trenchant criticism of right-wing politics.
Rahul is fighting a similar case in a Bhiwandi court too.
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