After losing his seat in the Parliament, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has contested the charges that he has defamed any community called Modi. Gandhi argued in the magistrate’s court in Surat that he caused no damage to the reputation of BJP MLA Purnesh Modi through his public statement, “Why do all thieves have the surname Modi?” Even the BJP leader in Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi, has filed a separate case of defamation against Gandhi.
Gandhi’s lawyer Kirit Panwala, who argued in the court that there was no identifiable and determinate community called Modi, told a national daily: “It is Purnesh Modi who terms the Modhvanik community as the ‘Modi’ community; there is no evidence of it (the ‘Modi’ community). If the ‘Modi’ community comprises 13 crore people, it is not an identifiable and determinate community.”
Panwala added, “Only one sentence should not be taken as defamatory. He (Rahul) has not insulted any community. The Modi surname does not belong to only the Modhvanik community but also to people from other castes. If proper identity is established, then this case is maintainable…here, identity is not established.”
The Modi surname is used by Hindus, Muslims, and Parsis in Gujarat. The daily reports that traders and fishermen (especially from Porbandar) use the Modi surname. Purnesh Modi belongs to the Modhvanik community of Surat. The central list of Other Backward Communities for reservation in jobs and education shows no community by the name of Modi.
Furthermore, the report alludes to the fact that the Modi surname doesn’t feature in the 136 communities from Bihar listed in the central list of OBCs, although there is a Teli. The Modi surname largely belongs to the Teli community, which is part of the OBCs. Teli also features in the list of 68 communities of Rajasthan in the central OBC list.
In 2000, many communities from Gujarat such as Modh Ganchi, Teli, Teli Rathod, Teli Sahu, and Teli Rathore were added to the central list of OBCs, the report highlighted.
This surname is also used by Marwaris and illustrious businessmen. Many eminent personalities had the Mody surname, including former chairman of Tata Steel Russi Mody and the stage and film personality Sohrab Modi to name a few.
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