“How Spineless Is Election Commission…”: TMC MP On BJP Hate VideoEven after the Election Commission’s ‘request’ to X to take down a hate video posted by BJP Karnataka, the video is still showing on the account of the state wing’s X handle. The Election Commission faced criticism yesterday for not sending the notice to BJP, instead the poll body has sent the ‘request’ to X as the elections concluded in the state.
Commenting on the issue, Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale asked: “How spineless is the Election Commission of India that it doesn’t have the guts to order BJP to delete a video that ECI itself admits is illegal?”
He also took a dig at the poll body, which is already under fire from Opposition parties and observers for being soft on BJP regarding hate speech and other Model Code of Conduct violations during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, and said: “Why doesn’t the Election Commission formally announce that BJP is exempt from all rules & that “free & fair” elections are officially a matter of history?”
“The Election Commission has NOT even sent a notice to BJP to delete the tweet. They claim to have instead issued a notice to X (Twitter). But no action,” he said on the video still showing on BJP Karnataka’s X account.
It’s been 4 days and the BJP’s communal tweet is still up and visible as of right now (11:17am).
Election Commission has NOT even sent a notice to BJP to delete the tweet. They claim to have instead issued a notice to X (Twitter). But no action.
How spineless is @ECISVEEP… pic.twitter.com/PKcP58XTTJ
— Saket Gokhale MP (@SaketGokhale) May 8, 2024
Yesterday, the Election Commission told X that the BJP post is violative of the extant legal framework, and an FIR has already been registered in the matter.
“It is further brought to your notice that the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, through Cyber Crime Division, Bengaluru, has already directed X on 05.05.2024, to take down the objectionable post as per Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act and rule 3(1)(d) of The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021. However, the post has not been taken down yet. Therefore, ‘X’ is directed to take down the post immediately,” the request from the Election Commission said.