Shun divisive speeches, EC tells BJP, Congress
Commission writes to party presidents; asks star campaigners to refrain from any campaign methods along ‘religious or communal’ lines; faults Nadda’s response to poll body’s notice
he Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday directed the BJP and its star campaigners to refrain from any campaign methods along “religious or communal” lines and not make any speeches and statements which “may divide the society”. The poll body also asked the Congress leaders not to make statements which give false impression that “the Constitution of India may be abolished” or “potentially divisive statements” regarding the socio-economic composition of the armed forces.
In separate letters to BJP president J.P. Nadda and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the commission
Tasked them to issue formal notes to the star campaigners to maintain decorum in their utterances. It said the country’s socio-cultural milieu could not be made a casualty to elections and that the utterances of star campaigners followed patterns and created narratives which could be damaging beyond the model code period.
The EC letter to Mr. Nadda was issued taking note of the BJP president’s response to the April 25 notice to him on a complaint made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Banswara, Rajasthan, which, the Congress had termed “communal”.
The EC had issued a similar notice on model code of conduct (MCC) violations by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Mr. Kharge on the same day.
However, just like the April 25 notice, Wednesday’s letters do not name either Mr. Modi, Mr. Gandhi or Mr. Kharge. The notices being issued to the party presidents, instead of the leaders directly, was also unprecedented.
In a somewhat harsh observation in Wednesday’s letter, the EC noted that Mr. Nadda had made no explicit denial of speeches made by its star campaigners in the response and has also not conrmed if the commission’s directions in the matter had been brought to their notice. It termed Mr. Nadda’s defence as “untenable”.