'How do you know...': SC's sharp poser to Rahul Gandhi's ‘Army thrashed by China’ remark

The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his claim that China had occupied over 2,000 square kilometres of Indian territory, remarking that a “true Indian” wouldn’t make such a statement. Despite the criticism, the court stayed defamation proceedings filed against him over the remarks.

The case stems from Gandhi’s comments during his 2022 Bharat Jodo Yatra, where he alleged that Chinese troops had taken Indian land and were “thrashing Indian soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh.”

During the hearing, the bench questioned Gandhi, saying, “How do you get to know that 2000 sq km land was occupied by Chinese, if you are true Indian, you wouldn’t say such a thing,” as quoted by news agency PTI.

“You are Leader of Opposition; say things in Parliament, not on social media,” the bench observed.

The top court also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the complainant in the case.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih passed the order while hearing Gandhi’s challenge to a summoning order issued against him.

The Congress leader had argued that the complaint was politically motivated and filed in a mala fide manner.

The Allahabad High Court had earlier dismissed his plea on May 29.

The case was filed by Udai Shanker Srivastava, who claimed that Rahul Gandhi made several derogatory remarks about the Army in the context of the India-China border standoff.

Rahul Gandhi’s controversial remarks

“People will ask about Bharat Jodo Yatra… but they will not ask a single question about China capturing 2,000sqkm of Indian land, killing 20 Indian soldiers, and thrashing our soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh, don’t pretend people don’t know,” Rahul Gandhi had said.