EC to Decide on Complaints Against PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi Tomorrow
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission will take a decision on complaints of model code violations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday.Deputy election commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar said Monday that the ‘full commission’ would meet Tuesday morning and decide on the complaints.
The poll panel is also likely to discuss the possible dates for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections on Tuesday. The state elections could not be held along with Lok Sabha polls as the Union Home Ministry had cited law and order problems in holding simultaneous election.
The meeting of the Commission will take place on a day when the Supreme Court will hear a Congress MP’s plea seeking direction to the poll panel to decide without any “demur” the complaints against Modi and Shah on their alleged hate speeches and using armed forces for “political propaganda”.
Asked about the court hearing, Chandra Bhushan Kumar, the Deputy Election Commissioner, said, “This meeting to decide on these leaders’ violations was fixed earlier. We can’t comment on tomorrow’s court hearing”. The Prime Minister was accused of violating the Model Code for his references to the Pulwama and Balakot air strikes during election campaign, which has been banned by the Commission.
Asked whether the meeting has deliberately been coincided with hearing in SC, Responding to questions on delay on the part of the EC in taking a decision, Saxena said a “comprehensive view” is required for which legal, model code and expenditure divisions are involved.
Addressing a rally in Ausa of Latur in Maharashtra on April 9, Modi had urged young voters to cast ballots in the name of heroes of the Balakot air strike.The local poll authorities in Maharashtra are learnt to have told the EC here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks asking first-time voters to dedicate their vote to those who carried out the Balakot air strike, are prima facie violative of its orders, asking parties against using the armed forces in their campaigns.
Modi had said, “Can your first vote be dedicated to those who carried out the air strike.””I want to tell the first-time voters: can your first vote be dedicated to the veer jawans (valiant soldiers) who carried out the air strike in Pakistan. Can your first vote be dedicated to the veer shaheed (brave martyrs) of Pulwama (terror attack),” Modi had said.
On a question about Modi’s remarks not being violative of the EC’s guidelines because he had not sought votes for any party, an official said the matter is before EC and it would decide on it Tuesday. A decision on Shah’s reported remarks on ‘Modi ji ki vayu sena’ made in West Bengal on Monday will also be taken on Tuesday.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘chowkidar chor hai’ jibe against Modi is also under EC lens and the decision is slated for Tuesday. Transcripts of his two media interactions/interviews in which he had reportedly made these remarks have been obtained and it is under the consideration of the Commission.
The officials were also examining the complaint against BJP chief Amit Shah for dubbing the armed forces “Modi Sena” – a remark that army officers had objected to and wrote to the defence ministry.The BJP had complained against Rahul Gandhi for his “chowkidar chor hai” slogan.
The election panel has been active after it was pulled up by the Supreme Court earlier this month over allegations of inaction in cases of Model Code violation.Since then, a number of political leaders — including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union minister Maneka Gandhi, Mayawati, Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan and Congress’s Navjot Sidhu – were handed temporary bans from campaigning.
But contending that the Election Commission had not acted on the party’s complaints against PM Modi and Amit Shah for three weeks, the Congress had asked the top court this morning for a direction within 24 hours. In her appeal, Congress lawmaker Sushmita Dev had said PM Modi and Mr Shah used “hate speech” at rallies to polarise voters, and referred to the operations by the armed forces in their “political propaganda” despite the poll body’s ban.
Last month, in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack and the air strikes at Pakistan’s Balakot, the Commission had categorically told political parties not to refer to the armed forces in election campaigns. A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said it will hear the Congress plea on Tuesday.(With Agency Inputs ).
