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BJP should've taken leaf out Vajpayee's book: Prashant Kishor on Rahul's disqualification

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Google Oneindia News

Political strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor has called the disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as the Member of the Parliament as "excessive".

Kishor, who is holding an outreach campaign on foot in his home state Bihar, said that the ruling dispensation should have shown "a big heart" on the Congress leader's disqualification, according to a report in PTI.

BJP shouldve taken leaf out Vajpayees book: Prashant Kishor on Rahuls disqualification

"I am not a legal expert but with due respect to the process of law, the sentence awarded to Rahul Gandhi seems to be excessive. In the heat of elections, people say all types of things. This was not the first instance and not going to be the last", the news agency quoted Kishor, who is now touring Bihar as part of "Jan Suraaj" campaign, as saying.

"Two years in prison seems to be excessive for what is essentially a defamation case", said Kishor, adding "I would like to remind the government at the Centre of a famous line by Atal Bihari Vajpayee that nobody becomes great with a petty heart (chhote man se koi bada nahin ban jaata)".

"The ruling dispensation may hide behind technicalities and insist that Rahul Gandhi's disqualification was inevitable, given his conviction. I would still say they should have taken a leaf out of the book of late Vajpayee, their own revered leader and not rushed to disqualify Rahul Gandhi", said Kishor.

"They (the BJP) are in power today. The onus was on them to have shown a big heart. They should have waited for a few days and allowed the aggrieved party to go in appeal and acted only if no relief was in sight", he said.

Gandhi has been disqualified from Lok Sabha on Friday after his conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

The Surat court on Thursday sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail in a defamation case filed on the basis of a complaint by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi for the Congress leader's remark "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" while delivering a speech in 2019.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has refused to issue an apology for his comments against the BJP and the RSS during his recent UK visit.

"My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday responding to a query on repeated calls by the BJP seeking his apology over various issues.

With inputs from PTI

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