Congress Complains To Election Commission Against PM Modi On Rajasthan Speech

New Delhi, April 22: The Congress today sought action against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his controversial speech in Rajasthan on Sunday where he named one community and accused it of grabbing country’s resources.

A delegation of the party including Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Gurdeep Singh Sappal met the ECI at Nirvachan Sadan here today.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Dr Singhvi said four or five elements in the PM’s speech were “deeply, deeply objectionable”.

“He (the PM) had named a community. He has talked of religion blatantly; he has talked of communal and community blatantly”, he pointed out, adding, the PM has linked it with deprivation of resources for the majority and garnering a monopolisation of resources by that minority.

Dr Singhvi said the PM also brought up the Hindu imagery of no less than the ‘Mangal sutra’ in clear violation of the Section 123; the basic principle of not allowing incitement and inflammation of communal passions.

“We respect the office he holds. He is as much our Prime Minister as he is your and of the BJP. The higher the post he holds, the more the obligation on him to exercise restraint”, Dr Singhvi observed while praying  to him with “folded hands to withdraw these comments”.

Maintaining that it was something very serious, Dr Singhvi said the Congress party hopes the commission to act “because the Election Commission itself is on trial that irrespective of the status of the person who has done this, appropriate action as in other case will and must follow shortly”.

The Congress delegation also raised the issue of Surat election where the BJP candidate has been declared elected “unopposed”. He argued that it cannot be a coincidence that all the four persons who proposed Congress candidate’s name denied their signatures while the candidate himself went missing for some time.

In the meantime all other candidates withdrew from the contest and the Congress candidate’s candidature was rejected, he disclosed, while observing, this cannot be a coincidence and demanded that the Election Commission postpone the Surat election.

The Congress also raised the issue of Hindu religious imagery on BJP’s official social media handles, which it said was a clear violation.

Gurdeep Sappal said that the delegation also raised the matter of anonymous hoardings carrying derogatory caricatures of opposition leaders in Delhi which have still not been removed even when the party had complained about it three weeks ago.

It also reiterated its suggestion that during the election period the authority to ban the YouTube channels and deactivate social media handles and accounts should be with the Election Commission and not with the Information and Broadcasting ministry.