Congress terms Election Commission a BJP puppet

Party says no action was taken against Modi for ‘road show’ in violation of law.

December 14, 2017 04:13 pm | Updated December 01, 2021 06:31 am IST - New Delhi

 Members of the Youth Congress and Mahila Morcha stage a protest outside Election Commission of India office, in New Delhi on Thursday. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewal alleged that the Prime Minister has violated all norms in his “roadshow” after voting in the Gujarat Assembly polls.

Members of the Youth Congress and Mahila Morcha stage a protest outside Election Commission of India office, in New Delhi on Thursday. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewal alleged that the Prime Minister has violated all norms in his “roadshow” after voting in the Gujarat Assembly polls.

In an unprecedented attack on the Election Commission of India, the Congress described it as a “captive puppet” of the BJP and accused it of “denigrating the Constitution by not issuing a notice to Prime Minister Modi.”

Members of the party’s women and youth wing also protested outside the Commission on Thursday afternoon for what it called “the Commission’s refusal to act against BJP leaders and Ministers.”

Addressing a press conference, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who oversaw Congress’ campaign, and the party’s communication chief spokesperson, Randeep Singh Surjewala, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi violated the model code of conduct by holding a roadshow after voting in the Gujarat Assembly polls on Thursday, but the Commission refused to take note. “If the Prime Minister of the country does this, what kind of inspiration does it give to others,” asked Mr. Gehlot.

‘Shocking violation’

In a series of tweets, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said: “Allowing a roadshow of PM on voting day is a gross violation of code of conduct. It is an election campaign. What is the EC doing? The images on TV will leave no one in doubt that the BJP and PM have conducted a full fledged campaign on polling day. Shocking violation of rules. EC is sleeping on the job.”

“Let the media look at the images on the TV screens, search its conscience and reach a conclusion. There has not been a more blatant violation of the code of conduct on polling day. Stand up media to this unprecedented violation of the code of conduct. Condemn the EC for allowing this gross abuse,” Mr. Chidambaram said.

The Congress criticism comes a day after the Commission issued a notice to president-elect Rahul Gandhi for violating the model code of conduct by giving interviews to TV channels and asked FIRs to be registered against channels that aired it.

The party said the Commission behaved like a frontal organisation of the BJP and “the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) was acting like the Prime Minister’s PS.”

‘Different rules’

“The rules are different for the Congress and newspapers, TV channels airing Gandhi’s interviews, which were not violation of the code of conduct. But at the same time, no action is being taken against the Prime Minister,”said Mr. Surjewala.

On Wednesday, the poll panel asked Mr. Gandhi to reply to the notice by December 18 but the Congress, late on Wednesday, asked the Commission to issue a similar notice to the PM for speaking against the UPA at the annual general meeting of industry body, FICCI, and BJP president Amit Shah for a press conference in Ahmedabad.

“We had sought an appointment from Election Commission at 4.30 p.m. yesterday [Wednesday]. They kept on deferring it and finally refused to give the appointment. When we told the Election Commission that we are going to sit on a ‘dharna’ before the Election Commission at 9.30 at night, they finally relented and gave us an audience at 10.15 p.m. This conduct itself reflects how prejudiced, how one-sided [the Commission is], how they are acting as a captive puppet of BJP,”said Mr. Surjewala.

Mr. Surjewala also took on the Prime Minister for his allegation that the UPA was responsible for the “biggest scam of saddling public sector banks with NPAs” (non-performing assets).

“Prime Minister had talked about an NPA scam yesterday [Wednesday]. We agree with him as data from the Reserve Bank of India show that the NPAs have increased by over ₹5 lakh crores in the past 42 months of the Modi government,” he said.

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