PM roadshow elicits Cong ire
LONDON: One of the "Chennai Six" group of ex-British soldiers jailed in India was dragged to a psychiatric hospital and force-fed antipsychotic tablets during his time in jail, a London court was told on Thursday by Vijay Mallya. This was cited by Mallya buttress his claim that jail conditions in India are incompatible with British human rights laws. The exsoldier, named only as "A", said he had been grabbed by 15 prison guards and prisoners and taken to a psychiatric hospital because he had been "excessively walking" around the prison, the court was told. "While in the psychiatric hospital, he stated he was tied up, gagged, he was beaten and he was forcibly injected. In addition he described being force-fed anti-psychotic tablets that he managed to spit out," Mallya’s counsel said. This despite the British government being told that the Chennai Six were being well looked after. Mark Summers, the lawyer representing the Indian government, said this was an uncorroborated account which could be used as a "platform for a compensation claim against the UK government". He said conditions in Chennai bear no relation to the jail in Mumbai where Mallya would be held. Angry over the Election Commission not acting immediately on its complaint against Prime Minister Modi for holding a roadshow with on the polling day in Ahmedabad, after casting his vote, in utter disregard for the poll code, the Congress lambasted it as a "kathputli (puppet)" and "bandhak (hostage)" of the ruling BJP and the Prime Minister's office.
In a 2-page memorandum submitted to the EC, the Congress further accused it of maintaining "double standards." On one hand, the EC had shown great speed in sending a notice to Rahul Gandhi and even threatened to register FIRs against channels that aired his interview; on the other hand, the poll body had exhibited its "complicity" while acting on a complaint against the ruling party and the PM.
"This is unjustified, unwarranted and unacceptable in our democratic polity," it said. "If the EC becomes subservient and captive to the whims and fancies of the Prime Minister and the ruling party, the entire election process would come under a cloud," the memorandum underlined.
A high-level BJP delegation led by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, which also included union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and
MALLYA COURT TOLD ABOUT ABUSE OF UK SOLDIER IN TN JAIL
Nirmala Sitharaman, also rushed to the EC to debunk the charge that the PM had held a road show.
None, however, spoke to the press on their representation, except that the BJP has full trust in the EC.
Congress workers held protests near the Election Commission office as also at the AICC headquarters, and many of them were detained for disrupting traffic. The EC asked the police to barricade its office and said it is awaiting a report from the Ahmedabad collector on the roadshow charge.
Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told a Press conference here that the EC had turned a blind eye to all Congress complaints against the BJP leaders. "Despite giving you conclusive evidence of flagrant violation of the Code of Conduct by Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, Shri Arun Jaitley, Shri Amit Shah, Shri Piyush Goyal and others and demanding the registration of an FIR against all of them -- following the same yardstick that you are following for news channels and Congress President-elect -- the EC failed to take any action whatsoever," the Congress memorandum said.
Surjewala said the release of the BJP manifesto by Jaitley, a day before the first round of polling on December 9, was also in violation of the 48-hour ban on all canvassing; likewise, the airport press conference by BJP president Amit Shah and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal's press conference in the BJP headquarters on Wednesday, seeking to influence the voters in the Thursday poll, are all violations of the code of conduct.
On the PM's road show, the Congress memorandum said: "Not only was the law of restriction on number of people near polling booth breached with impunity but with active complicity of the administration/police machinery/SPG, a road show, was also held with BJP flags in utter disregard of the poll code and the law."
The Congress also registered its anguish that it has been seeking an appointment with the EC in Delhi since 8 AM on Thursday, yet its office gave time at 4 PM which "itself would be redundant as the polling comes to an end at 5 PM."