PM Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi
Credit: PTI File Photos
New Delhi: Almost three weeks have gone by but the Election Commission is yet to take action on its notices to the chiefs of BJP and Congress regarding complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Opposition leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.
The EC on Tuesday said that it has received the responses from both BJP chief JP Nadda and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and “appropriate action” on complaints and counter complaints is “under examination/ consideration”.
The notices were issued on April 25 to Nadda seeking his 'comments' on complaints against indulging in 'hate speech' and Kharge on BJP's complaint against himself and Rahul Gandhi for making speeches that creates 'linguistic and cultural' divide. They were initially given time till April 29 but sought more time.
In its second 'suo motu' report on two months of enforcement of Model Code of Conduct during Lok Sabha elections, the EC however did not clarify when it received the responses from the parties.
It said a few complaints of the Congress and the BJP against each other are pending and were broadly in the genre of “divisive statements by top star campaigners on communal, caste, regional language divide, or on the sanctity of the Constitution”.
Defending its decision to send notices to the party chiefs in certain circumstances, the EC said the parties have the prime responsibility to rein in their star campaigners from committing such violations though individuals continue to remain responsible for their remarks.
It said it has received 425 “major” complaints and action has been taken in 400 cases. Of the complaints, 170 were from Congress, 95 from BJP and 160 from other parties and individuals.
The EC also said that top leaders should set 'good examples' of campaign discourse expected of them in the ongoing Lok Sabha election.
“It is primarily their (leaders) responsibility to correct the course of their statements/utterances in the remaining phases to avoid a permanent dent on the delicately balanced social fabric of the country,” it said.
It also said the Lok Sabha campaign by various parties and candidates at constituency level has “largely remained violence free, less noisy, less cluttered and intrusive, free of inducement and ostentatiousness”.