The top Indian opposition figure, Rahul Gandhi, said he will continue fighting for democracy after blaming his expulsion from parliament on his demands for an investigation into a key business ally of the prime minister, Narendra Modi.
Gandhi was stripped of his parliamentary seat on Friday after he was convicted of defamation in Gujarat, India's home state of Gujarat, for a campaign-trail remark seen as an insult to the prime minister.
Modi's government has been accused by political opponents and rights groups of using the law to target and silence critics, but Gandhi said he would not bow to intimidation.
He said that I will do whatever I can to defend the democratic nature of this country. They are used to everyone being scared of them, headded, in reference to the ruling party. I am not afraid of them. The removal of the parliament of Modi's chief opponent comes at a time when the prime minister's relationship with Gautam Adani, one of India's most powerful industrialists, has been under scrutiny.
Modi has been a close associate of Adani for decades but the latter's business empire has been the subject of renewed attention this year after a US investment firm accused it of brazen corporate fraud.
Gandhi's opposition Congress party has demanded a proper investigation by the parliament of the allegations.
Gandhi told reporters that I have been disqualified because the prime minister is afraid of the next speech going to come on Adani. I will continue to ask the question What is the relationship between the prime minister and Mr Adani? Congress supporters held small protests in several cities around the country on Saturday to protest Gandhi's removal as a lawmaker.
Gandhi is now a shadow of its former self, once the dominant force of Indian politics. He is the scion of India's most famous political dynasty and son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.
He has struggled to challenge the electoral juggernaut of Modi's Bharatiya Janata party BJP and its nationalist appeals to the country's Hindu majority.
The lower house of parliament ruled him ineligible to sit as an MP on Friday, a day after his conviction in the defamation case. The prosecution came from a remark made during the 2019 election campaign in which Gandhi had asked why all thieves have Modi as their common surname. His comments were seen as a slur against the prime minister who went on to win the election in a landslide. Members of the government said the remark was a smear against all those sharing the Modi surname, which is associated with the lower rungs of India's traditional caste hierarchy.
Gandhi was sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday, but walked free on bail after his lawyers vowed to appeal.
A BJP spokeswoman said on Thursday that the court had acted with due judicial process in arriving at its judgment.
In recent years, legal action has been taken against opposition party figures and institutions that have been seen as critical of the Modi government. Gandhi faces several other defamation cases in the country and a money-laundering case that has been snaking its way through India's glacial legal system for more than a decade.
In February, Indian tax authorities raided the BBC's local offices, weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary on Modi's conduct during deadly sectarian riots decades ago. The raids were part of a wider trend of using government agencies to intimidate or harass press organisations that are critical of government policies, according to the editor's guild of India. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters on Friday that the verdict represented the emasculation of democratic institutions by the ruling party.