ECI Notice To BJP And Congress Over PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi Speeches Causing 'Hatred And Divide'

The Election Commission has sought response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over MCC violation by April 29.

ECI seeks response from PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi over MCC violation ( Image Source :PTI )

The Election Commission of India has taken cognisance of the violation of Model Code of Conduct by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and sought their responses on the same by April 29, 11 am. Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress had raised allegations of causing 'hatred' and 'divide' based on religion, caste, community, or language. 

Invoking the section 77 of Representation of the People Act, the poll panel held party presidents responsible, as first step, to reign in star campaigners.

The allegations against Modi and Rahul have been exchanged with BJP President JP Nadda and INC President Mallikarjuna Kharge as a first step.

Political parties will have to take primary and increasing responsibility for the conduct of their candidates, star campaigners in particular. Campaign speeches by those holding high positions are of more serious consequences, the ECI said. 

"The grant of the status of the 'Star Campaigner' statutorily lies entirely within the realm of the Political Parties under Section 77 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and the Star Campaigners are expected to contribute to a higher quality of discourse, inter alia, by way of providing an all-India perspective, which sometimes gets distorted in the heat of the contests at the local level," said the poll panel in its notice.

"Thus, the expectation from Star Campaigners is to provide corrective action or a sort of healing touch, when intensity of local campaign disrupts or inadvertently crosses over such boundaries. The Star Campaigners are thus expected to utilize this privilege for "propagating the programme of the political parties" and, therefore, their speeches in the campaign space necessarily needs to be judged at a higher threshold of compliance," it added. 

PM Modi's Remark At Banswara Rally

The BJP president was sent the notice on a complaint by Congress over Modi's remarks at a poll rally in Rajasthan's Banswara on April 21 where he dubbed Muslims as infiltrators and alleged that the party will redistribute country's resources among the community. 

Addressing the poll rally, Modi had said: "The Congress manifesto says they will calculate the gold with mothers and sisters, get information about it and then distribute that property. They will distribute it to whom - Manmohan Singh's government had said that Muslims have the first right on the country's assets." 

Rahul Gandhi's Kottayam Speech

In its complaint submitted by the BJP, the saffron party said alleged that Rahul Gandhi "violated the electoral laws, MCC, and criminial laws" at a poll rally in Kerala's Kottayam on April 18. 

The part of his speech to which BJP raised objection is: "....... If a daughter graduates from a university, her parents congratulate in Malayalam. When a brother loses the other brother, he communicates in Malayalam. Thus, Kerala is Malayalam, Malayalam is Kerala. I get surprised when I hear PM giving speeches where he says one nation, one language, and one religion. How can you tell people of Tamil to not speak Tamil, people of Kerala to not speak Malayalam, people... Every single Indian language is as important as any other language. BJP does this with language, place, caste and religion. Whenever they get an opportunity, they divide the country....."

Reacting to the development, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the party would respond to the notice that it has recieved.