Lok Sabha Elections 2024: EC's refusal to take direct action for 'communal' remarks by top leaders dents credibility

New Delhi: The Election Commission's letters to BJP chief J P Nadda and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge raises questions, as it identifies serious poll violations for which the EC has refused to take direct action.

The tone and tenor of the EC’s communication to Nadda shows that it holds the party’s star campaigners guilty of indulging in 'communal' campaigning but does not name anyone, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, or act against anyone.

After this, the EC itself quotes 12 complaints filed against BJP and four against Congress after April 25, before concluding that both Nadda’s and Kharge’s respective arguments in defense of their star campaigners were 'not tenable'.

Unlike in 2019, when it gave a contentious clean chit to Modi amid a dissent note by one of the Election Commissioners, the EC this time has found a round-about way to deal with the complaints — putting the ball in the BJP president’s court and not directly taking the violators to task.

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said, "none of the issues raised in our complaints against the incendiary communal speeches of Modi and other BJP leaders have been addressed by EC in today’s directive. EC is handling such grievous MCC violations with kid gloves. Meekly handing out directives to ‘maintain decorum’ etc. cannot restore its credibility."

The clean chit handed to Modi in 2019 had then led Sushmita Dev, a Congress leader at the time, to approach the Supreme Court. However, as the EC had taken action, the apex court did not move forward. It said that if anyone wanted to challenge the clean chit, they were welcome to. In 2019, Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa had also objected to the clean chit to Modi and this eventually led to his resignation from the poll body.

This time, the process also started in a circuitous way as the EC sent notices to the party chiefs, instead of directly to the violators. It did so by stating that star campaigners are chosen by the parties' respective poll committees, though it acknowledged that the campaigners are to be held responsible for their own remarks. However, no notices were sent to alleged violators.

This also helped the EC avoid taking direct action against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With the poll body trying to do a delicate balancing act, it issued a similar notice to Congress too. In the process, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and its top leader Rahul Gandhi were also 'beneficiaries' of EC's indirect approach, if one goes by the letter addressed to Kharge.

The letters to the BJP and Congress chiefs come only a month after BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao and Congress’ Randeep Surjewala were barred from campaigning for two days and YSR Congress chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy censured. In Surjewala’s case, the EC also sent a letter to Kharge.

The EC's recent actions also raised eyebrows precisely because it was a diplomatic balancing act rather than the actions of the highest poll body of the country trying to ensure free and fair elections under the Model Code of Conduct.

It issued a notice to Kharge simultaneously on April 25 only after the Opposition bloc raised questions on the delay in taking action against the Prime Minister for his speech in Banswara where he claimed Congress will snatch ‘mangalsutras’ and redistribute wealth to 'infiltrators'.

The notices did not mention the names of Modi, Kharge or Rahul Gandhi but complaints against them were annexed. The latest letters also do not name any of the three leaders.

According to Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, the EC's directions to both the parties are a 'perfect example' of how a Constitutional body is 'abdicating its responsibilities and showing undue deference' to the party in power for the moment.

"The sheer brazenness of the statements of the outgoing PM and his senior colleagues like the outgoing Home Minister can in no way be compared to the statements made by leaders of the Congress against which complaints have been lodged. Level-playing playing field cannot mean drawing a wholly bogus equivalence," he said.

"The statements of the outgoing PM especially are blatant violations of the EC's Model Code of Conduct and also of various Supreme Court judgments on the misuse of religion in political campaigning. The Congress is campaigning to protect the Constitutional right of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs to reservations. How on Earth can this be called casteist?" he added.