Daijiworld Media Network - Jaipur

Jaipur, Jan 14: An Additional Sessions Court in Jaipur has rejected a revision petition filed against former Congress president and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi in connection with alleged caste-based remarks made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The order was passed on Tuesday by Additional Sessions Judge Neelam Karwa, who upheld an earlier decision of the lower court and declined to interfere in the matter. The revision petition had been filed by advocate Vijay Kalander challenging an order of Metropolitan Magistrate Court No. 4.

The judge observed that the statements of the complainant and the material placed on record did not substantiate the allegations, leading to the dismissal of the plea.

In the petition, the complainant alleged that the lower court failed to properly examine the facts of the complaint. It was claimed that Rahul Gandhi, as a senior political leader, had repeatedly made statements altering caste identities and allegedly inciting the public, thereby affecting the unity and integrity of the country.

According to the complaint, the remarks were made during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Chhattisgarh in 2024, where Rahul Gandhi allegedly stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not an OBC by birth and belonged to the Teli community in Gujarat. The Teli community was included in the Other Backward Classes category in 2000. Gandhi was alleged to have claimed that the Prime Minister was born in the general category and later came to be classified as OBC.

Advocate Vijay Kalander objected to the remarks, stating that they were detrimental to public peace and national integrity. He also alleged that Rahul Gandhi concealed his own caste identity while making the statement, which, according to the complaint, hurt religious sentiments and warranted legal action.

This is not the first time Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on Prime Minister Modi’s caste have sparked controversy. At a public meeting in Odisha earlier, he had claimed that “PM Modi was made an OBC by the BJP government of Gujarat,” a statement dismissed by the BJP as false.

Following that claim, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya had released a Government of India gazette notification dated October 27, 1999, stating that the ‘Modh Ghanchi’ community, along with ‘Ghanchi (Muslim)’, ‘Teli’ and ‘Mali’ communities, was included in the OBC category. At that time, Keshubhai Patel was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, while Narendra Modi assumed office later in October 2001.

However, differing views have emerged within the BJP itself. Former Gujarat deputy chief minister and BJP MP Narhari Amin has stated that the ‘Modh’ and ‘Ghanchi’ communities were added to the OBC list on July 25, 1994, during a Congress government in Gujarat, noting that Narendra Modi did not hold any executive position then.

Rahul Gandhi has previously faced conviction in a similar matter. In 2023, a Surat court sentenced him to two years in prison over remarks related to the Modi surname. The Supreme Court later stayed both the conviction and the sentence.