INDIA’S opposition leader Rahul Gandhi pleaded not guilty on Tuesday (12) to defaming a powerful Hindu group closely linked to the ruling party of prime minister Narendra Modi. Gandhi will fight charges in court that he defamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organisation when he accused them of “assassinating” Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi. A member of the RSS – an umbrella group which is the ideological inspiration for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – sued Gandhi for the remarks made in 2014. Gandhi is unrelated to freedom legend Mahatma Gandhi but both hail from Congress, India’s oldest political party.…
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