Taking cognisance for the first time of a model code conduct violation complaint against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Election Commission has issued notice to BJP national president JP Nadda and sought his response by April 29. The commission has also served a notice to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, asking him to respond to the complaints filed by the BJP against him and the main Opposition party's senior leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their remarks. Both the BJP and the Congress had raised allegations of causing hatred and division based on religion, caste, community, or language.
This is the first time that notices were issued to party presidents for violation of model code of conduct by star campaigners, this election. Notably, this marks a departure from the past, where notices of alleged MCC violations were served directly to the candidate or star campaigner concerned.
Even during the ongoing campaign for the Lok Sabha election 2024, all MCC notices served by the EC have been issued directly to party leaders, including Dilip Ghosh of the BJP, Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala and Supriya Shrinate, and AAP leader Atishi. The EC notices to the two-party presidents did not directly name either Modi, Rahul or Kharge, but the representations received by it were attached to the respective letters and they contained details of allegations against the three leaders.
In the notice sent to Nadda, the EC sought his response by Monday to the complaints filed by the Congress, CPI, CPI (ML) and civil society groups regarding the remarks made by Modi on April 21 in Banswara 21 where he dubbed Muslims as infiltrators and alleged that the party will redistribute country's resources among the community.
These complaints had referred to Modi's allegations that the Congress wanted to redistribute the wealth of the people to Muslims and that the opposition party won't even spare the 'mangalsutra' of women. The speech led to a major political slugfest with the Congress and other opposition parties accusing the prime minister of making false claims and the BJP alleging that the Congress was nursing an agenda of Muslim appeasement at the cost of weaker sections of the society.
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."
Officials said it is the first time that the panel has taken cognisance of a complaint against any prime minister. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the EC had given a clean chit to Modi on complaints lodged by the opposition parties. Then election commissioner, Ashok Lavasa, gave a dissent note on some of the decisions taken by the EC on complaints against the prime minister.
In its notice, the EC has invoked Section 77 of the Representation of the People Act and held the party presidents responsible, as a first step, to reign in star campaigners. The EC said it has taken a view that while individual star campaigners would continue to remain responsible for speeches made by them, the Commission will address party chiefs "on a case-to-case basis".
Reacting to this, the Congress said the Election Commission is "super, super cautious" when it comes to complaints against Modi.
"Star Campaigners are expected to contribute to a higher quality of discourse by way of providing an all-India perspective, which sometimes gets distorted in the heat of the contests at the local level. 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," wrote Senior Principal Secretary Narendra N. Butolia in the letter to Nadda.
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.
The BJP, on the other hand, had written to the EC that Rahul Gandhi levelled malafide and utterly sinister allegations against Modi during a speech in Kottayam, Kerala where he alleged that the prime minister was pushing for one nation, one language, one religion. The BJP said that in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Gandhi alleged that the prime minister was attacking "our language, history and tradition". It also accused Kharge of violating the model code by claiming that he was not invited to the Ram temple consecration ceremony due to discrimination against SCs and STs.
Model Code of Conduct
The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) of ECI is a set of guidelines issued to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections. The rules range from issues related to speeches, polling day, polling booths, portfolios, the content of election manifestos, processions, and general conduct, so that free and fair elections are conducted.
"Political parties or candidates can be criticised based only on their work record and no caste and communal sentiments can be used to lure voters. Mosques, Churches, Temples or any other places of worship should not be used for election campaigns"
MCC evolved as part of the ECI's drive to ensure free and fair elections and was the result of a consensus among major political parties. It has no statutory backing which means anybody breaching the MCC can't be proceeded against under any clause of the Code. Everything is voluntary. The EC uses moral sanction or censure for its enforcement"
I urge parties to refrain from personal attacks and foul language. No-go areas in speeches are defined to maintain civility. Let us not cross lines in our rivalry. We have issued an advisory for the political parties, they are encouraged to foster a political discourse that inspires rather than divides," Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, who requested political parties to maintain decorum during campaigning, while announcing General Elections 2024 on March 16, 2024.
CEC also advised political parties against hate speeches, caste or religious appeals, criticism of any aspect of private life, masquerading of advertisements as news and social media posts vilifying or insulting rivals.
Wherever there will be a case of violation against anyone, however renowned the politician may be, we will not sit back. We will take action. Earlier, we used to morally censor but now we will take action," CEC Rajiv Kumar. March 16,2024 while responding to a media query about allegations of bias in dealing with MCC violations.
