Karnataka BJP forced to withdraw offensive election advertisements

Hours after a delegation from the Congress on Friday complained against violations of the Model Code of Conduct by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka, the state level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) withdrew several permissions given earlier to the BJP to advertise in newspapers and TV channels as part of its election campaign.

Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala tweeted a copy of the order.

Congress had sought intervention of the Election Commission against BJP, the state level MCMC, officials concerned and the media outlets for publishing and airing wild, grave and baseless allegations against the Karnataka chief minister and the state government.

All advertisements used during the campaign require to be certified by the MCMC before they can be published or aired. The Congress delegation wanted to know if the advertisements had indeed been pre-certified and demanded action if they were.

Attaching screen shots and photographs, the complaint pointed to several such advertisements released by the BJP across Karnataka. Some of them described the state government headed by chief minister Siddaramaiah as:

• The government that has turned all areas [of Karnataka] into hell.
• The government that has not stopped the murder of patriots.
• The government that has broken up society.
• The state government’s “Anna Bhagya” scheme has robbed fortunes.
• A government that protects all hoodlums.
• A government that has sacrificed its farmers.

The BJP campaign also uses videos in which actors resembling the chief minister are shown distributing cash and make unfounded allegations.

• One of the videos begins with the following lines, “Solar power tender- Rs. 800,00,00,000 (Rs 800 crores)-gone.”
• An actor with his back to the audience, is seen. He is clearly intended to be representing the current CM. The back of his chair explicitly reads “CM”
• He is wearing a heavy gold watch and is shown handing gifts to a lady
• The person still sitting on a chair marked as “CM”, then hands a gift to a man in a suit
• A line underneath reads, “K.P.C. coal mine tender”- Rs 400,00,00,000. (Rs. 400 crores) gone.

While the Election Commission of India’s website till Friday evening was silent on the complaint, the committee in Bangalore appears to have hastily withdrawn several certificates it had granted to the BJP.

It is not clear if the ECI has ordered an inquiry so far.