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It's an accepted fact," Gandhi, who belongs to the opposition Congress party, said in remarks at The National Press Club in a visit to Washington. China and India have been uneasy neighbors for decades following a war on their disputed Himalayan frontier in the early 1960s. In May, Modi said peace on India's border with China is essential for normal relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Separately, Gandhi blamed Modi for India's religious polarization, saying his Hindu nationalist party was not inclusive. They don't embrace everybody, and they divide society," Gandhi said.

Persons: Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi's, It's, Gandhi, Modi, Simon Lewis, Kanishka Singh, Jamie Freed Organizations: National Press Club, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, 161st, Thomson Locations: China, Beijing, Washington, India, Arunachal Pradesh, Tibet

☆ What does India's BJP losing Karnataka elections mean for Modi?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has lost its only stronghold in the country’s south after voters in Karnataka state rejected the Hindu-nationalist policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in crucial local elections last week. The opposition Congress party won 135 seats in the state’s legislative assembly, versus 66 for the BJP, giving Modi’s opponents a boost as they prepare to challenge India’s populist leader in next year’s general election. “Were they to lose some or all of the remaining state elections this year, including three big states in the (central and northern) Hindi belt, that may be further indication of waning support,” he said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to the crowd during campaigning for state elections in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on May 7. “A lot would depend on how Congress Party does in upcoming state assembly elections,” Verma said.

☆ India's opposition Congress gains key foothold with state election win
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Yp Rajesh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

At the same time, they cautioned that Congress' victory on Saturday in Karnataka state, home to the booming tech hub of Bengaluru, was largely due to local factors. The party has won just one state election since December 2018, crumbling under the onslaught of the BJP's Hindu nationalism, the government's generous social spending, Modi's popularity, and its own leadership vacuum. "This is an amazing beginning," said Rajeev Gowda, the head of research at Congress and a former federal lawmaker. "We need to adapt these learnings to every election-going state in 2023 and more importantly to parliamentary elections next year," he said. Asked by the India Today-Axis poll how they would vote if the Karnataka election had been a national election instead, 10% of the respondents shifted to Modi, enough to overturn the result.

☆ Analysis: India's opposition Congress gains key foothold with state election win
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Yp Rajesh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

☆ India's opposition Congress scores big win in Karnataka state election, defeats BJP
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Yp Rajesh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Supporters of India's main opposition Congress party celebrate after the initial poll results in Karnataka elections at the party headquarters, in New Delhi, India, May 13, 2023. REUTERS/Adnan AbidiNEW DELHI, May 13 (Reuters) - India’s main opposition Congress party registered an emphatic win in elections in the southern state of Karnataka on Saturday, defeating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a big boost to its prospects ahead of national elections due next year. Congress won 135 seats against 66 for the BJP in the 224-member legislature, the Election Commission website showed at the end of counting. In contrast, the BJP won 15 states or federal territories either on its own or in alliance with regional parties. "(The) Congress party stood with the poor in Karnataka, we fought on the issues of the poor," Gandhi told reporters.

☆ Geopolitics is shrinking India’s risk premium
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Una Galani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

They are lured by a country whose potential as an alternative investment destination to China increasingly outweighs the local challenges of doing business. India’s $3 trillion economy is forecast to grow by 6.5% this fiscal year, continuing to outpace the rest of the world. Executives and investors also see a business-friendly government that is likely to remain in power for the next half-decade. Morgan Stanley analysts and strategists expect India to become the world’s third-largest economy and stock market before the end of the decade. The India risk premium is rapidly disappearing.

☆ India's Rahul Gandhi appeals after court denies stay of defamation conviction
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, April 25 (Reuters) - Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday appealed to the High Court in the western state of Gujarat seeking a stay of conviction in a defamation case, challenging a lower court's ruling against his plea, his lawyer said. The 52-year old scion of India's Congress party was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. His petition seeking a stay of conviction was rejected last week. Gandhi also lost his parliamentary seat following the conviction since lawmakers sentenced to jail terms of two years or more are automatically disqualified and barred from running for election. Two more defamation cases have also been filed against Gandhi elsewhere in India relating to the same comment.

☆ Indian court denies Rahul Gandhi's appeal to stay defamation conviction
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Sumit Khanna | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

AHMEDABAD, India, April 20 (Reuters) - A court in India's western state of Gujarat on Thursday rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's petition seeking a stay of conviction in a defamation case, fuelling uncertainty over whether he will be able to contest an election due next year. "The Surat district court has not granted a stay on Rahul Gandhi's conviction," Naishadh Desai, a local Congress leader and lawyer, told reporters outside the court room. While Thursday's ruling was a setback for Gandhi, his jail sentence remained suspended until he exhausts all legal challenges. Senior Congress leader and Supreme Court lawyer Jairam Ramesh said the party would use every legal option to overturn Gandhi's conviction. The defamation case against Gandhi was brought by Purnesh Modi, a BJP legislator in the Gujarat state assembly.

☆ Indian journalists warn of new assault on press freedom
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The Editors Guild of India, a nonprofit organization representing more than 200 journalists, said in a statement on Friday that it was “deeply disturbed” by the new rules, saying they had “deeply adverse implications” for press freedom in India. If these companies failed to take down the offending content, Chandrasekhar said, they would lose the automatic legal protection they currently enjoy against complaints about third-party content on their platforms. “The dangers of misinformation, the impact of patently false information in a democracy like ours, is never to be underestimated,” Chandrasekhar said. Concern has been brewing in recent months over the Indian government’s increasingly restrictive stance towards the media. In February, Indian tax authorities searched the BBC’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai, accusing the British broadcaster of tax evasion.

It’s something related to insulting someone, basically, in a way that is apparently illegal in India. And he basically is gonna be thrown out of parliament for this and will be ineligible to run for prime minister, because of this. I mean, you know, there’s a very different thing happening in America, and we still, I think, do have an independent judiciary. Like, it’s not as if Trump was convicted of a misdemeanor and then he can’t run for president. But it is interesting to think about the way in which the world is watching us and what lessons will be taken from this episode.

☆ India's Gandhi to appeal against defamation conviction on "multiple grounds"
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Sumit Khanna | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SURAT, India, April 3 (Reuters) - Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi will on Monday lodge an appeal against his conviction for defamation, his lawyer said, hoping to overturn a judgement that resulted in his expulsion from parliament a year before a general election is due. Gandhi, the scion of a dynasty that has given India three prime ministers, was granted bail and a two-year jail sentence was suspended for 30 days allowing him to appeal in a higher court. "Gandhi will challenge the conviction order on multiple grounds," his lawyer, Kirit Panwala, told Reuters in Surat city in the western state of Gujarat where the appeal will be heard. He said the appeal would also highlight what he called procedural lapses in the trial. Writing by Rupam Jain in New Delhi; Editing by YP Rajesh, Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Rahul Gandhi to appeal jail sentence
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, April 2 (Reuters) - Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi will appeal a two-year jail sentence in a defamation case brought against him by lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), local media reported on Sunday. A lower court sentenced Gandhi on March 23 for two years in jail on charges of defamation. The opposition critics accuse Modi government of giving undue favours to a business group led by billionaire tycoon Adani. Shares of Adani group companies plunged after Hindenburg Research on Jan. 24 alleged that the Indian company had engaged in stock manipulation and used tax havens. A day after Gandhi's conviction, 14 political parties jointly petitioned the Supreme Court, saying opposition groups were being selectively targeted by federal investigative agencies.

The opposition has come together after this month's conviction of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party on a charge of defamation and his disqualification from parliament. Opposition politicians say Gandhi's shock disqualification, and possible jail time, is the latest evidence of the Modi government's strongarm tactics and follows investigations and legal troubles faced in recent months by other opposition parties. A day after Gandhi's conviction, 14 political parties jointly petitioned the Supreme Court, saying opposition groups were being selectively targeted by federal investigative agencies. "The Modi government's fascist steps have given a new chance for opposition parties to be united," Trinamool MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, told Reuters. "Anti Modi-ism or anti BJP-ism cannot be the glue that brings together disparate opposition parties with different aspirations and ambitions and positions," said Nalin Kohli, the BJP's national spokesperson.

☆ YouTube Looking Into Gandhi’s Claim Political Videos in India Suppressed
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Newley Purnell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Two videos criticizing India’s government are alleged to be receiving far fewer views than YouTube analytics suggest they should. YouTube’s chief executive said in an email that the company is looking into a claim by Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi that the Alphabet Inc. unit is suppressing his videos criticizing India’s ruling party and a billionaire who controls a conglomerate accused of wide-ranging fraud. The March 25 email from YouTube’s Neal Mohan , which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, came in response to a letter sent two weeks earlier from the leader of a group of overseas Indians who support Mr. Gandhi’s Congress party.

HISTORY OF DEFAMATION AS A CRIMINAL OFFENCESection 499 of the Indian Penal Code enacted by British colonial rulers in 1860 made defamation a criminal offence and Section 500 set out punishment. Anyone found guilty of criminal defamation can be jailed but a civil offence means they can only be made to pay damages. The criminal law has been invoked in cases filed against journalists, politicians and industry leaders but convictions have been rare. "Criminal defamation laws have an inhibitory and silencing effect, even before a conviction,” it said. However, Supreme Court advocate Raju Ramachandran said the section on criminal defamation "is carefully and elaborately worded" and should stay.

☆ India's disqualified Gandhi says he will not stop asking Modi questions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW DELHI, March 25 (Reuters) - Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday he had been disqualified from parliament because he has been asking the prime minister tough questions about his relationship with Gautam Adani, founder of the embattled Adani conglomerate. Gandhi, who represented India’s main opposition Congress party in parliament, lost his seat on Friday, a day after a court in the western state of Gujarat convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail. The defamation case was filed in connection with comments Gandhi made in a speech that many deemed insulting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India's next general election is due by mid-2024 and Gandhi has recently been trying to revive the fortunes of his party. Modi’s enormous popularity remains intact despite the accusations of undue favours to the Adani group, approval ratings have shown.

☆ Indian Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi Expelled From Parliament
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Rajesh Roy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, in white shirt and beard, leaves Parliament in New Delhi on Friday. NEW DELHI—India’s Parliament disqualified opposition leader Rahul Gandhi as a lawmaker on Friday after a lower court convicted and sentenced him to two years in prison in a defamation case linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s surname. The move casts a shadow over Mr. Gandhi’s political future as elections approach next year. His Congress party plans to appeal the conviction soon, according to party leaders. If the appeal is accepted, Mr. Gandhi would be able to retake his seat in the legislature.

☆ India's parliament disqualifies opposition leader Rahul Gandhi
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI, March 24 (Reuters) - India's parliament on Friday disqualified opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi as a lawmaker after a lower court found him guilty of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison, according to a parliament notice. Gandhi, 52, a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, was convicted on Thursday for a 2019 speech in which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi. The court granted him bail immediately and suspended the sentence for a month. Reporting by Shivam Patel; Editing by Andrew CawthorneOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Yet he remains at the centre of India's opposition politics and the main target of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu- nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Gandhi entered politics and was first elected to parliament in 2004 from his family borough of Amethi in the northern heartland state of Uttar Pradesh. He repeated that victory in 2009 and 2014 but suffered a shock setback in 2019 when he lost the seat. However, he had also contested a seat in the Kerala state and won there to return to parliament. Outside parliament, he has often reminded his supporters of his family's commitment and sacrifices, talking about the assassinations of his grandmother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and his former prime minister father, Rajiv Gandhi.

☆ India's Congress party to launch street protests against Gandhi's conviction
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Rupam Jain | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Supporters of the Youth Congress Party hold placards during a silent protest against the conviction of Rahul Gandhi, President of India's main opposition Congress party, in a 2019 Defamation case by a Surat court, on a street in Mumbai, India, March 23, 2023. REUTERS/Francis MascarenhasNEW DELHI, March 24 (Reuters) - Members of India's main opposition Congress party will take to the streets on Friday to protest against leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction for defamation, party officials said a day after a magistrate's court sentenced Gandhi to a two-year jail term. Two senior Congress leaders told Reuters that Gandhi will respect the local court's verdict and will not attend parliament. Officials in the Congress party said they are also depending on regional opposition parties to galvanize political support against the verdict. The president's office confirmed that Congress leaders have sought a meeting with President Draupadi Murmu to lodge a protest against the conviction with the top constitutional executive.

☆ Indian court convicts Rahul Gandhi of defamation, gives two-year sentence
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Gandhi was present at the court in Surat, a city in Gujarat, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state. Gandhi would appeal against the verdict in a higher court, the president of his Congress party said on Twitter, calling Modi's government "cowardly and dictatorial". "The court has found Rahul Gandhi’s comment to be defamatory. Gandhi said in court that he had made the comment to highlight corruption and not against any community. Reporting by Sumit Khanna in Ahmedabad, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Factbox: Why Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi may lose his parliament seat
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Arpan Chaturvedi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A formal disqualification order will, however, have to be passed by the secretariat of the lower house of parliament of which Gandhi is a member. CAN GANDHI CONTEST ELECTIONS? The law also mandates that a convicted lawmaker cannot contest elections for six years after the end of their jail sentence. To avoid disqualification, a convicted lawmaker has to secure an order from a higher court suspending the conviction, lawyers said. He can secure bail extensions during the appeal period but cannot contest elections until the conviction is stayed or he is acquitted in the case.

☆ India's Modi lashes opposition as Adani allegations persist
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Shivam Patel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Modi spent a nearly 90-minute speech to parliament mainly listing governments achievements and without naming the under-fire Adani Group. However, opposition lawmakers who are demanding an investigation into the business group interrupted him several times shouting slogans. "The blessings of 1.4 billion people in the country is my protective cover and you can't destroy it with lies and abuses," said Modi as opposition lawmakers chanted "Adani, Adani". Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS), Adani Power (ADAN.NS) and Adani Wilmar (ADAW.NS) rose 5% each, while Adani Green (ADNA.NS) and Adani Total Gas Ltd (ADAG.NS) fell 5% each. They have questioned investments made by state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIFI.NS) and the State Bank of India (SBI.NS) in Adani Group companies.

☆ India's Gandhi ends 135-day march to revive Congress party in snowy Kashmir
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Fayaz Bukhari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"All secular parties must come together to liberate the country from BJP," D. Raja, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, said at the rally. Several other opposition leaders failed to make it to the rally because flights into Srinagar's airport were cancelled due to the heavy snow. The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has controlled the Congress party for decades but has also overseen its recent decline. Rahul Gandhi resigned as Congress president after the last election. "I am not from the Congress party but want to support the cause Gandhi stands for," Ahmad said.

Adani, whose home state is Gujarat in western India, built his business empire from scratch after starting as a commodities trader. Adani's business empire grew rapidly and his wealth ballooned. In recent years, the $220 billion Adani Group empire has attracted foreign investment - France's TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), for example, partnered with Adani last year to develop the world's biggest green hydrogen ecosystem. It is not known what was discussed and Adani Group did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Adani Group's consolidated gross debt stands at $23.34 billion, Jefferies says.

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