“Corruption, defamation separate issues”: BJP leader RP Singh hits back at Karti Chidambaram over Rahul remark

New Delhi [India]: Lashing out at Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram for drawing a parallel between the arrest of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha, BJP leader RP Singh on Saturday said corruption and defamation were separate issues.

Reminding the son of former Union minister P Chidambaram that he was “charge-sheeted in a corruption case”, RP Singh told media, “Rahul Gandhi was convicted in a criminal defamation case.

Corruption and defamation are two different issues having nothing in common. Hence, drawing a parallel between them makes no sense.”

Earlier, on Saturday, Chidambaram junior invoked the Supreme Court’s stay on the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in the criminal defamation case over the use of the surname ‘Modi’, to hit out at the Centre.

The conviction and the two-year suspended sentence saw the Congress leader being disqualified from the Lok Sabha.

However, following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Congress has demanded that Rahul’s status as an MP be restored at the earliest.

In a dig at the Centre, Karti Chidambaram said Pakistan was following the “India model” of preventing the main opposition leader from contesting elections.

Pakistan Police on Saturday arrested former Prime Minister Imran Khan, hours after he was accused of corrupt practices by accruing benefits from illegally selling state gifts he had received during his tenure as the country’s premier from 2018 to 2022.

A Pakistan district and sessions court sentenced the former PM to three years in prison and disqualification from active politics for five years in the ‘Toshakhana’ case.

The court also imposed a fine of Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 100,000 on the PTI chief, Geo News reported.

Khan was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore soon after being convicted in the Toshakhana case today, Geo News reported.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader posted, “Pakistan is following the India model in preventing the principal opposition leader from contesting elections.”

Pointing out the alacrity with which Rahul was stripped off his membership of the Lower House following his conviction in the defamation case, Congress had claimed earlier that the move was aimed at preventing him from contesting next year’s general elections.

After the Supreme Court, on Friday, stayed Rahul’s conviction in the ‘Modi’ surname case, Congress said it was hopeful that their leader, who was elected an MP from Kerala’s Wayanad constituency, would return to the Lok Sabha and lead the Opposition’s charge against the Centre on the Manipur situation.