EC dismay

effect of creating disharmony and ill-will between different sections of society on the ground of religion, caste, greed, community and language, as the same disturb peace and tranquillity of the society which is absolutely essential for free and fair conduct of elections”.

Signed by EC’S Senior Principal Secretary R K Srivastava, the letter quotes the Supreme Court, which “has also recently expressed its deep concern in the matter of mixing religion and caste with election campaign”.

The letter said the Commission “notes with dismay” that its “advisories are not having the desired results” and that it had “recently noted a disturbing tendency of inflammatory statements”.

Slamming the tendency of politicians to circumvent the model code of conduct, Srivastava wrote that “sometimes, such statements are being made from a place which is not in the state where MCC is in force”. However, “in this electronic age, when a statement is made by a political functionary, it does not remain confined to the audience or place where it is made but instantly travels through TV, social media or print media even to those places/states where election is going on. It undoubtedly has the pernicious effect of influencing the minds of voters of the poll-bound state,” he wrote.

The Commission noted that “the far reaching implication of the statement made thus disturbs the level playing field and often adversely affects the peace, tranquillity and harmony of the poll-bound area”.

The commission urged “every responsible citizen and politician” to “observe a self imposed restrain” in “public utterances/speeches/interviews etc during election time... The political leaders need to ensure that nothing in the statement may be construed as mixing of religion and caste etc with their election campaigns or having effect of causing mutual hatred, disharmony or ill will...”