Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was granted bail Monday, while he moves to appeal a two-year prison sentence. File Photo by Rajat Gupta/EPA-EFE

Gandhi who appeared at Surat’s session court along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and a group of congressional leaders will not be required to attend his next hearing.

“This is a fight to save democracy,” the 52-year-old said in Hindi on Twitter Monday.

“In this struggle, truth is my weapon, and truth is my support!”

Members of the BJP party said that Gandhi’s decision to appear at the courthouse was an effort to pressure the court.

“What Rahul Gandhi is doing is also a childish attempt to bring pressure on the appellate court. All courts in the country are immune from such tactics,” India’s Law Minister Kiren Rijiju Tweeted Monday.

Gandhi, the leader of the country’s National Congress Party is facing disqualification as a member of parliament and would be barred from running in any elections for eight years if his conviction is not reversed.

He was convicted over 2019 comments made about India’s current leader Narendra Modi. At the time, Gandhi drew a parallel between Modi’s surname and that of a fugitive diamond tycoon and corrupt cricket official.

He was convicted and handed the two-year prison sentence late last month, and given 30 days, or until April 10 to appeal.

Gandhi has maintained all along the charges and conviction are a politically-motivated attempt to silence him from revealing corruption among Indian politicians.

Last month, after the conviction and sentence were handed down, Gandhi told supporters in a public display in front of the courthouse, that neither jail nor disqualification from Parliament would silence him.

He is also suspended from the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament.