Rahul Gandhi says he isn't Savarkar, won't apologise

Rahul Gandhi Saturday sought to link his disqualification from the Lok Sabha as a fallout of his questions on the Adani Group's functioning and political 'patronage' for the infrastructure conglomerate while vowing to carry on with his "fight to defend the democratic process" - even at the cost of "life-long disqualification" from Parliament or "imprisonment".

On BJP's demand for his apology, he once again threw in his favourite line: "My name is not Savarkar. I am Gandhi. I won't apologise."

The former Congress president tried to attribute his legislative disqualification to the government, but parried questions on the specifics of his conviction by a Surat court in the criminal defamation case that caused his unseating from Parliament.


"I asked questions in Parliament regarding who has invested '20,000 cr in the shell companies of Adani and about the relationship between PM and Adani," Gandhi said Saturday in his first media interaction after he was unseated from the federal legislature.

"This whole drama has been orchestrated to defend the Prime Minister from the simple question; - Whose '20,000 crore is invested in Adani's shell companies? I am not scared of these threats and disqualifications," he said, claiming that a "Chinese" national has stakes in what he described as "shell companies."

To questions about the specifics of his conviction, Gandhi said: "I don't want to comment on the legal matters...." Gandhi branded some reporters as "BJP supporters" and boasted he "punctured" one of them with his taunt when they pressed him on his legal conviction and about BJP's comments about it.