New Delhi: India’s top court on Tuesday ordered Rahul Gandhi to express regret or face defamation charges for blaming the country’s top Hindu nationalist organisation for the 1948 assassination of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.
The Supreme Court did not accept Rahul Gandhi’s plea that what he said in 2014 was based on government records and a court ruling and that he didn’t directly refer to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS.
Gandhi, vice-president of the opposition Congress Party, was not present in court and was represented by his attorney Harin Raval. He had made the remarks while campaigning for the Congress Party before the 2014 national election.
The court scheduled the next hearing for July 27, rejecting Gandhi’s plea to dismiss the lawsuit against him, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
The court said that Gandhi would be charged and face trial if he does not express regret for his comments during the upcoming hearing.
The case stems from a defamation lawsuit filed against Gandhi by an activist of RSS, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological mentor, for accusing the organisation of assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.
The lawsuit was filed in western Maharashtra state. If charged and convicted, Gandhi, who has so far refused to apologise and settle the case, could face up to two years in prison.
The Supreme Court judges said on Tuesday that the government and court records say that Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse, was an RSS worker.
But, it said, “Godse killed Gandhi and RSS killed Gandhi are two different things. You have gone way ahead and you can’t make a collective denunciation.”
The Congress on Tuesday said Rahul Gandhi will not apologise for his remark.
“Rahul Gandhi will present all historical evidence in support of his case in a court of law. He will not apologise,” Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi told the media at Parliament House complex.
He said the Congress will support Gandhi all through the case.
“The case is in court. We would not like to comment on it,” Gogoi said, adding that Rahul Gandhi has already said he will not apologise for his comment.
Referring to Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement in the Lok Sabha on the issue, the Congress spokesman said after hearing him it seems the Bharatiya Janata Party will continue to use unconstitutional methods to destabilise democratically elected state governments run by opposition parties in various states, which is “unfortunate”.
“We saw no regrets in the Home Minister’s comments, which is regrettable,” Gogoi said.
The Congress asserted that it will prove in court the connection Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin had with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), saying “history can neither be changed nor rewritten”.
“If it comes to trial then we are ready to give evidence to the court, as history cannot be changed, cannot be rewritten, and cannot be denied just because it does not suit the current government,” Congress spokeswoman Priyanka Chaturvedi said.
“Why should one apologise? The Supreme Court has made an observation and it is not the final verdict,” Chaturvedi said.
“If we have to go to trial to prove Nathu Ram Godse’s connection with the RSS, we will do it by providing evidence to the court. There have been various records that prove he was connected with the RSS,” she said.
Godse was tried and convicted for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. He was executed on November 15, 1949.
Chaturvedi said “history has witnessed Godse’s connection with the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha”.
Chaturvedi said her party respects the observation made by the apex court.
She said the RSS had no role to play in the struggle to get independence from British rule.
“They had apologised to the British and stayed away from the independence movement.”
“Saradar Vallabhbhai Patel had banned the RSS. And it is also known what Patel had to say about Hindu Mahasabha and RSS. The ban was revoked by Patel only after they agreed to remain a cultural organisation instead of becoming a political entity,” she said.
Patel was the first home minister of independent India.
