Patna: The action against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is an occasion for 'fight, not fright' and all parties opposed to the ruling BJP at the Centre must come together 'without delay', Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said on Thursday. The RJD leader, whose party has been a Congress ally for two decades, was reacting to the conviction of Gandhi by a Gujarat court in a defamation case. "Yeh darne ka nahin, ladne ka waqt hai (It's the time to fight, not fright)", Yadav said. He said he will not comment on the court order but the people of the country are understanding the reason behind the treatment being meted out to Gandhi.


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He recalled that his father Lalu Prasad, the RJD president, "has been saying since 2014 that the country is passing through a phase of an undeclared Emergency" wherein all people, be they of any political orientation and involved in any profession, face persecution if they criticise the regime.



The young RJD leader, who has been on the radar of central agencies like CBI and ED, however, claimed that it was becoming evident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had grown 'nervous' at the prospect of facing the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.


"These people are hell bent upon destroying the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar. The demonetisation was a huge scam and if he (Modi) returns to power, democracy and Constitution will be finished and we will see his photographs on currency notes instead of Mahatma Gandhi," alleged Yadav.


"We are now witnessing vendetta against political opponents on a scale that has never been witnessed. Similar concerns were recently expressed by Akhilesh Yadav," said the RJD leader who shares family ties with the Samajwadi Party president.


All parties opposed to the current dispensation ideologically must unite without delay, Yadav said.


"Today is the date when Bhagat Singh attained martyrdom. I had joined Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in paying tributes to the legendary revolutionary. In the face of what is happening today, the need of the hour is to fight and not fright", he said with a rhetorical flourish.


A court in Surat in Gujarat on Thursday sentenced Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his "why all thieves have Modi surname" remarks.


The court also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.