I may be wrong,but I believe that the ominous and dangerous verdicts of both the Judicial Magistrate of Surat and the Honourable Speaker are marred by an elementary fallacy we all learnt during the penultimate years of higher secondary education.
Let us put the most offensive construction on Rahul Gandhi’s remark.Then it will turn out like this:
ALL THIEVES ARE MODIS.
But can we turn it to mean
ALL MODIS ARE THIEVES??
Certainly not.
Let us consider a parallel instance:
ALL COWS ARE HOOVED ANIMALS.
It certainly cannot be translated into
ALL HOOVED ANIMALS ARE COWS.
Then why should Rahul Gandhi be held guilty by interpreting him in such a fallacious manner?
Hiren Gohain is a political commentator