Rahul continues to be on thin ice: BJP on SC staying conviction

After the Supreme Court stayed Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a defamation case, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said Parliament "can do with some levity for now" but the Congress leader continues to be on thin ice as several other criminal defamation cases are pending against him.

In a big relief to Gandhi, the apex court stayed his conviction in the 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way for the restoration of his Lok Sabha membership.

The Lok Sabha Speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi can seek restoration of his status as an MP.

Reacting to the development, BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said in a tweet, "Rahul Gandhi may have survived this one but for how long?"

There are several other criminal defamation cases pending against Gandhi, including "the high profile case of mudslinging the venerable Veer Savarkar", filed by the freedom fighter's family, Malviya wrote on Twitter, recently rebranded as X.

"Rahul Gandhi is also an accused, along with his mother Sonia Gandhi, in the National Herald scam, and currently out on bail,” the BJP leader added.

Conviction in any of these cases can lead to Gandhi's disqualification again, he added.

"Rahul Gandhi is on thin ice here. But, for now the Parliament can do with some levity,” Malviya said.

“On an earlier occasion, no less than the Supreme Court had pulled Gandhi up for attributing wrongly to them an observation (that) they had not made,” he the BJP leader said.

The apex court had in 2019 closed a contempt proceedings against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to it his "chowkidar chor hai" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale case, with a warning to be more careful in future after the senior Congress leader tendered an unconditional apology.

BJP national spokesperson Shahzad Poonawalla said the Supreme Court has only stayed Gandhi's conviction in the defamation case, not given him "a clean chit".

"He is still guilty of making comments against the OBC community.... His conviction has not been overturned," Poonawalla told PTI.

The BJP spokesperson said the judiciary has been vindicated today.

"Otherwise till yesterday, the Congress party was making all kinds of accusations against the judiciary, saying that the judiciary is controlled by the BJP,” he charged.

"If the judiciary passes an order against their (Congress) convenience, the judiciary is compromised. If it passes an order which serves their convenience, the judiciary is fine,” he added.