JAIPUR: 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 against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The court upheld an earlier order of the lower court and declined to interfere in the matter.
The ruling was delivered on Tuesday by Additional Sessions Judge Neelam Karwa, who examined the revision petition filed by advocate Vijay Kalander challenging an order passed by Metropolitan Magistrate Court No. 4.
The judge observed that the complainant’s statements and the material placed on record did not support the plea, leading to its dismissal.
In the petition, the complainant contended that the lower court had failed to properly examine the facts of the complaint.
It was alleged that Rahul Gandhi, as a senior political leader and Leader of the Opposition, had repeatedly made statements altering caste identities and inciting the public, thereby harming 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 but belonged to the Teli community in Gujarat.
The Teli community was included in the Other Backward Classes category in 2000. Gandhi reportedly claimed that the Prime Minister was born into the general category and later came to be classified as OBC.
Advocate Vijay Kalander objected to the remarks, alleging that they were detrimental to public peace and national integrity. He further claimed that Rahul Gandhi had concealed his own caste identity while making the statement, which, according to the complaint, hurt religious sentiments and warranted legal scrutiny.
This was not the first instance in which Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on Prime Minister Modi’s caste triggered controversy.
At a public meeting in Odisha earlier the same year, he had claimed that “PM Modi was made an OBC by the BJP government of Gujarat,” a statement the BJP dismissed as false.
In response, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya released a copy of 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 the time, Keshubhai Patel was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, while Narendra Modi assumed office later on October 7, 2001.
However, differing accounts have emerged within the BJP regarding the timing of the OBC inclusion. Former Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister and BJP MP Narhari Amin has stated that the ‘Modh’ and ‘Ghanchi’ communities were added to the OBC category on July 25, 1994, during a Congress government in Gujarat. He noted that Narendra Modi did not hold any executive position at that time.
Rahul Gandhi has previously faced conviction in a similar case. In 2023, a Surat court sentenced him to two years in prison over remarks linked to the Modi surname, a verdict that carried significant political and legal consequences. The Supreme Court later stayed the conviction and sentence.