JK News Today
Jammu, March 26 : Ghulam Nabi Azad , one of the senior most leaders in the country, and head of Democratic Progressive Azad Party has severely criticized disqualification of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case , saying that this is against the basic spirit of natural justice and asserted that there should be distinction between political leaders and thieves and dacoits.
Azad, who parted ways with Congress in August last year after more than 50 years association with the grand old party of the country, said that this was quite unfair that the very next day of the announcement of the judgment ( by the trial court), Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Lok Sabha. The scales of justice demanded that he should have been allowed to exhaust all options till the highest court ( Supreme Court of India) and waited for the outcome .
The leaders like Rahul Gandhi are the elected representatives . They represent people. There should have been distinction between what he said and the way he was convicted and thereafter how he was disqualified from the Parliament in a tearing hurry and the routine criminals. If this trend continues then the Parliament and legislatures would be rendered empty .
Azad’s statement given in reply to questions on the sidelines of his rally in Kathua in Jammu region on Sunday , during a media interaction is significant, for he is one of the senior most political leaders in the country, who held many ministerial positions , including that of the Parliamentary affairs .. He had left Congress seven months ago , owing to differences with Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. He had floated Democratic Azad Party, which is now Democratic Progressive Azad Party .
