Soon after the Election Commission of India asked the Central government to stop sending "Viksit Bharat Sampark" messages to WhatsApp users on Thursday, the Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale asked, "What’s the point of ordering them to 'stop sending messages' days after they’ve all been already sent?"
It is to be noted that the TMC had raised the issue on March 18, claiming it was a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, which went into effect with the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections on March 16.
On March 18, TMC MP Saket Gokhale wrote to MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan that millions of WhatsApp users had received the letter from a Ministry-registered account called "Viksit Bharat Sampark" after the MCC went into effect. He had asked the secretary what database was used to disseminate the letter, as users outside of India had also reported receiving it.
"The message included a letter from PM Modi and was propaganda and marketing for Modi and the BJP. Here's the catch: due to the Modi government's usual incompetence, the majority of these messages were received after 4:30pm on March 16th. "This is when the election Model Code of Conduct went into effect (sic)," Gokhale stated on X.
On March 21, the Election Commission directed the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to immediately stop sending letters to WhatsApp users from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Viksit Bharat Sampark" account.
In a letter to the MeitY Secretary, the EC requested that the Ministry submit a compliance report right away. The Ministry informed the EC on March 16 that the WhatsApp messages were sent on March 15, before the election was announced.
"It was informed in that letter that though the letters were sent out before the MCC period, due to system architecture and network limitations some letters may have a delayed delivery," the Election Commission said in a statement.