Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday defended her brother Rahul Gandhi a day after the Supreme Court criticised his remarks on alleged Chinese incursions, saying that it is not for judges to decide who a “true Indian” is, PTI reported.

On Monday, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih told Rahul Gandhi that a “true Indian” would not make remarks such as the ones he did about China allegedly having intruded into Indian territory. The court asked the Opposition leader how he had verified his claims, and said that he should have made the comments in Parliament, rather than on social media.

Commenting on the court’s observations, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said: “With due respect to the honourable judges, they do not decide who a true Indian is. It is the duty of the Opposition leader to question the government.”

Vadra also said that Rahul Gandhi would never speak against the Army, and that he holds it in the highest respect, PTI reported.

“This is a misinterpretation,” she said, in an apparent reference to a defamation case filed against Rahul Gandhi for the remarks.

In a similar vein, Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale said that it was very dangerous for Supreme Court judges to question whether someone was a true Indian.

“NOTHING in the Constitution gives the SC the power to hand out certificates for being a true Indian’,” Gokhale said. “We are ALL equal under law.”

The Trinamool Congress member said that it was the prerogative of an MP to decide whether to make statements in Parliament or outside. “As long as it’s within the law, no court has the right to tell MPs whether they should say something inside the House or outside,” he said on social media.

The Supreme Court on Monday made the comments about Rahul Gandhi while hearing his petition seeking that defamation proceedings filed against him be quashed. Even as the court rebuked the Congress leader for his remarks, it stayed the proceedings for three weeks.

The case pertains to comments made by Gandhi on December 16, 2022, about a clash between the Indian and Chinese soldiers along the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang.

Uday Shankar Srivastava, a former director of the Border Roads Organisation, had filed a defamation complaint against Gandhi. His lawyer claimed that the Congress leader’s statements were derogatory and defamed the Indian Army.

Gandhi approached the Supreme Court in the matter after the Allahabad High Court refused to quash the proceedings in May.