EC 'super, super cautious' when it comes to complaints against PM: Congress

The Election Commission is "super, super cautious" when it comes to complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress said on Thursday, 25 April, after the poll watchdog asked the BJP to respond to complaints filed by opposition parties, accusing the PM of delivering a divisive speech in Rajasthan.

The EC has also asked the Congress to respond to complaints filed by the BJP against the main opposition party's president Mallikarjun Kharge and its senior leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their remarks.

Asked about the development, Congress general secretary, in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh said, "We had complained to the Election Commission. We brought to their notice that the PM's language is against the Model Code of Conduct, the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and various verdicts of the Supreme Court."

"There has been a delay, we have also complained about some other candidates misusing religion for votes. We believe that the EC will take action. We will reply to the notice we have got," Ramesh said.

Highlighting that the notice has been given to the BJP party president, Ramesh asked one should also look into why has the notice been given.

"There had been no complaint against (former PMs) P V Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. This is the second time we have complained against the PM. We had earlier complained about the home minister (Amit Shah) but no action was taken, action was taken against Assam chief minister," Ramesh said.

"We expect that the Election Commission impartially considers the complaints of various parties and wherever there is the need for a notice, they should give," he said.

Asked if the party feels that the notice should have been given to the prime minister, Ramesh said, "They are super, super cautious when it comes to the prime minister, they are super cautious when it comes to the home minister."

In its letter addressed to BJP President J P Nadda, the Election Commission asked him to respond by Monday to complaints filed by the Congress, CPI and CPI (ML) regarding the "divisive and derogatory" remarks made by Modi on 21 April in Banswara.

It also asked Nadda to bring to the notice of all star campaigners of the party to "set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of model code of conduct in letter and spirit".

Officials said it is the first time that the panel has taken cognisance of a complaint against any prime minister. The Election Commission has invoked provisions of the Representation of the People Act to hold party presidents as the first step to rein in star campaigners.

It wrote a similarly-worded letter separately to the Congress president with regard to allegations levelled by the BJP against him and Rahul Gandhi.