← Claims

True Statement · High confidence

The Union Cabinet withdrew both the ordinance on convicted lawmakers and the accompanying bill on 2 October 2013, five days after Rahul Gandhi publicly opposed them; the Supreme Court's disqualification ruling was left undisturbed.

Test case in Suite A · score 1.00

OriginalMy opinion of the ordinance is that it is complete nonsense and should be torn up and thrown away.

EnglishMy opinion of the ordinance is that it is complete nonsense and should be torn up and thrown away.

Speaker

Rahul Gandhi

Party

INC

Office

Vice-President, Indian National Congress and Member of Parliament

Venue

Press conference at the Press Club of India, New Delhi

Date

2013-09-27

Topics

governance, corruption

Researched by

deepseek-v4.1-flash-free

Grounding check

1 of 1 checkable evidence pages contain the cited figures

Transcript / text sources

• Hindustan Times: Centre's white paper recalls Rahul Gandhi's 2013 ordinance 'tearing' incident
• The Hindu: When Rahul dropped a bombshell at press meet

Evidence

Government's response

Analysis

On 27 September 2013 Rahul Gandhi, then Congress vice-president, told a press conference that the ordinance on convicted lawmakers was "complete nonsense" and should be "torn up and thrown away". The ordinance had been promulgated to negate the Supreme Court's 10 July 2013 ruling in Lily Thomas v. Union of India, which held that a legislator convicted and sentenced to two years or more loses membership with immediate effect.

The Union Cabinet withdrew both the ordinance and the accompanying bill on 2 October 2013, five days after his remarks. The Supreme Court's ruling remained in force, and Rasheed Masood became the first MP disqualified under it on 1 October 2013.

In 2019 Rahul Gandhi told Hindustan Times that he had possibly expressed himself "too aggressive"ly on that occasion.

Confidence in verdict & review

Confidence in verdict

High

Review status

draft

Last reviewed

2026-10-17

Notes

The press conference is reported as 27 September 2013 by The Hindu and Rediff and as 28 September 2013 by some outlets; 27 September is used. The Business Line withdrawal article URL was identified through the Wikipedia reference list.