Defamation case against Rahul: Hearing in UP court deferred to Dec 8 due to lawyer's death
Sultanpur (PTI): The hearing in a defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a court here on Wednesday was deferred to December 8 due to the death of a lawyer.
Gandhi's lawyer, Kashi Prasad Shukla, stated that due to a condolence meeting held today for the death of civil court lawyer Sudhanshu Upadhyay, all lawyers abstained from work, preventing any proceedings.
The next hearing in this case will be held in the MP-MLA court on December 8.
The case dates back to August 4, 2018, when BJP leader Vijay Mishra filed a defamation suit against Gandhi, alleging that the Congress leader had made objectionable remarks against the then BJP national president and current Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the Karnataka assembly election campaign.
Following Gandhi's failure to appear during the five-year court proceedings, the court issued a warrant against him in December 2023.
Subsequently, in February 2024, Gandhi surrendered before the court. The special judge granted him bail on two sureties of Rs 25,000 each.
On July 26, 2024, Gandhi filed his statement in court, in which he declared himself innocent and called the case a political conspiracy.
The court then directed the plaintiff to present evidence. Witnesses have been presented continuously since then. So far, only one witness has been cross-examined.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
