US federal court in Brooklyn dismissed a lawsuit filed by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a Sikh rights organization, against Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi for shielding party leaders allegedly involved in violence against Sikhs in November 1984 after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that it found the arguments presented by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) in its case against Gandhi “without merit”.
Gandhi’s lawyer eminent Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra termed the appeals court ruling as “historic” and said the judges have upheld a nation’s sovereignty by declaring Gandhi free of any fault – despite SFJ’s “reprehensible defamatory efforts”.
Sonia Gandhi
- Sonia Gandhi has served as President of the Indian National Congress party since 1998.
- In September 2010, on being re-elected for the fourth time, she became the longest serving president in the 125-year history of the Congress party.
- Although Sonia is the fifth foreign-born person to be leader of the Congress Party, she is the first since independence in 1947.
- She played an important role in making the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act into law.
- In the 2014 general election, she held her seat in Rae Bareli.
Test Your Knowledge
Who is the Author of the book “The Red Sari” – a dramatized version of Sonia Gandhi’s life?
