The Election Commission on Saturday "conveyed its displeasure’’ to Union Rural Development & Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari for bringing "disrepute’’ to the elections with his "do not say no to Laxmi’’ comment. The Commission also said it expected him to be more "circumspect in your public utterances’’ in future.
Rejecting Mr. Gadkari’s explanation that he had made the comment in a bid to inject some humour into the discourse, the Commission in its order said it "cannot accept your submission that you intended to address the problem of unethical inducements to voters in a humorous and sarcastic manner by telling the electorate not to get perturbed by the unholy attempts by the parties’’.
Addressing a rally in Nilenga Assembly segment in Latur on October 5, Mr. Gadkari had said: "This is the time when illegally earned money can go to the poor. Therefore, do not say no to `Laxmi’...’’ Stating that these comments amount to "abetting and promoting the electoral offence of bribery’’, the Commission had issued a notice to the Minister the following day for violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
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In his reply, Mr. Gadkari said the "entire tenor of my speech was to denigrate any attempt to allure/induce voters through any unlawful means’’. It was in his own "humble’’ way of trying to appeal to the electorate not to succumb by fulfilling the purpose for which such alleged inducements might be offered in any form by any quarters.
Refusing to buy the humour argument, the Commission said the provisions of the MCC are not something which should be talked about in a public meeting in a humorous or lighter way, and in a light-hearted manner.