India’s opposition leader Gandhi to appeal defamation charge

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to appear in court Monday to appeal a criminal conviction for mocking the Prime Minister’s surname that saw Gandhi expelled from Parliament, dealing a huge blow to his Congress Party ahead of general elections next year. Gandhi, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main challenger in the 2024 polls, was ousted after a court sentenced him to two years in prison for mocking the surname Modi in a 2019 election speech. The moves against him, the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister and scion of the dynastic Congress party, were denounced by Modi’s opponents as the latest example of a democracy under attack by a ruling government seeking to quash dissent.