It is said that all is fair in love and war. It means people are said to be not bound by standard rules of behaviour when they are in love or war. Most politicians believe that this is also true in elections.

Even as the polling is entering the second stage in the general elections to the 18th Lok Sabha, the campaign across the country has turned extremely vicious and vituperative. Highly distressing signals indicate even a possible eruption of violence can't be ruled out soon in many parts of the country. Unfortunately, very important political leaders deliberately inflame political and communal hate among people who could be driven to take arms against each other.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unprecedentedly inflammatory speech on April 21 at a campaign meeting in Banswara, Rajasthan. “When the Congress-led government was in power, they had said that Muslims have the first right over the country’s assets. This means they will distribute wealth to those with more children and those who are infiltrators. Is this acceptable to you?... This Urban Naxal thinking will not spare even the mangalsutras of my mothers and sisters.”

Modi was referring to a speech made by PM Manmohan Singh 18 years ago. In his address to the National Development Council (NDC) in December 2006, Manmohan Singh said that our priorities should be to uplift the most depressed sections of society, such as the SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities, and women and children. These were his actual lines; “I believe our collective priorities are clear: agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, a critical investment in rural infrastructure, and the essential public investment needs of general infrastructure, along with programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children. The component plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes must be revitalised. We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources. The Centre has many other responsibilities whose demands must be met within the overall resource availability.”

This statement promptly provoked BJP leaders to spring into action and decry it as appeasement of Muslims. The then BJP President Rajnath Singh and Yashwant Sinha were in the forefront to slam Prime Minister Singh. Modi, who was Gujarat's Chief Minister then, also joined the critics, but in a far more moderate manner than his present belligerence. He called Singh's statement “unfortunate” and said “every citizen in the country had equal rights over the country’s resources”. As the controversy grew, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) stated on 10 December that the BJP deliberately and mischievously misinterpreted the PM's words.

The PMO accused some sections of the electronic media of "fuelling a baseless controversy" by quoting Singh out of context. It said the Prime Minister's reference to the first claim on resources referred to all priority areas, including programmes for uplifting SCs, STs, OBCs, women and children and minorities.

The clarification led to the gradual fizzling out of the controversy.

Nearly two decades are over and now PM Modi raked up Manmohan Singh’s words. No prizes for guessing why. It is the election when politicians think everything is kosher. Unfortunately, there is a Model Code of Conduct (MOC) of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which comes into force simultaneously with the announcement of elections.

More than 10,000 petitions from various persons, organisations, and parties like the Congress and the CPI(M) have rushed petitions to the ECI against his speech. However, the ECI spokesperson has declined to comment on the petition until the end of Monday. The petitioners have accused Modi of violating the MOC, which bars using religion in election campaigns, and the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RP). According to Section 123(3) of the RP Act, appeals by a candidate, or any other person with the candidate's consent, to vote or refrain from voting on the grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language is a corrupt electoral practice. Section 123(3A) proscribes attempts by candidates to promote feelings of enmity or hatred among citizens on these grounds during elections. As per the Act, anyone found guilty of corrupt electoral practice can be debarred from contesting elections for a maximum period of up to six years. Section 125 states that any person who promotes or attempts to promote feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of citizens based on religion, caste, community, or language in connection with an election shall be punishable with imprisonment for up to three years, a fine or both.

Among those who have petitioned against Modi are Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar, founder of the Association of Democratic Rights; EAS Sarma, an IAS officer and former Secretary to the Government of India.

Interestingly, only recently has the BJP petitioned the ECI against Rahul Gandhi’s references to “Shakthi”. At a campaign meeting in Shivamogga, Karnataka, Modi tore into Rahul and INDIA, saying they were ridiculing the Hindu goddess Shakthi. “Women epitomise Shakti Swaroopa (Maa Durga) and exemplify strength. I am a worshipper of Bharath Matha and Shakti Swaroopini. How can anyone speak against “Shakti” on Indian soil… The Chandrayaan-3’s landing point on the moon was named as “Shiv Shakti,” Modi also said that the ensuing election was a fight between anti-Shakti forces and those who worship Shakti.

Modi’s response was to Rahul’s speech in Mumbai concluding the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. This was what the Congress leader had said: There is a word ‘shakti’ in Hinduism. We are fighting against a shakti (State power). The question is, what is that shakti, and what does it entail for us? The soul and integrity of EVMs have been traded to the king [Modi]. Not just EVMs but every autonomous institution of the country, be it the ED, CBI or Income Tax department, have traded their spines to the Centre,”

This made Rahul state that Modi had twisted his words as he never meant any religious connotation to Shakti. “The power that I mentioned, the power that we are fighting, its mask is none other than Modi ji,” the Congress leader posted on X.

So will the ECI initiate action against the PM? The two new members of the ECI, headed by Rajiv Kumar, were the first to be appointed last month after the central government passed a new law last December regarding the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and two Commissioners. According to it, the ECI will be constituted by a three-member selection committee comprising the PM, the Leader of the Opposition (LOP), and another Union Minister. Until this law was passed, the ECI was constituted by the President on the recommendations of the central government.

The new law was brought following the Supreme Court’s directive. However, the apex court directed last March that until the new law was in force, the selection committee should consist of the PM, the LOP, and the Chief Justice of India (CJI). But when the law came into being, the CJI was substituted by the Union Minister. This effectively ensured the government’s majority in the selection committee and made the independence of the constitutional body suspect. Home Home Minister Amit Shah was included in the committee. Critics cited the new law as undermining the independence of one more critical constitutional institution by the Modi government.

This March, the selection committee chaired by the PM appointed retired IAS officers -Gyanesh Kumar of Kerala cadre and S.S. Sandhu, former Uttarakhand Chief Secretary-- as new Election Commissioners. The new appointments were made quickly after the sudden resignation of ECI member Arun Goel on March 9 and the retirement of another member, AC Pandey, in February. The selection was criticised as hasty, and the LOP, Adheer Ranjan Chowdhury, submitted a dissent note saying the shortlisted names were given to him only 10 minutes before the meeting. In these circumstances, how the ECI will consider the complaints against the PM is to be seen.

Though the RP Act appears tough, only one prominent politician has ever faced punitive action from the ECI for using religion for political purposes, until now. He was Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray in 1987 for making speeches against the Muslims during an assembly election in Maharashtra.

Modi's outburst also betrays an eroding confidence within the BJP about its own bombastic claims like “Ab ki baar, char sow paar”.

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Muslims, Mangalsutra and Modi 

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24.04.2024

It is said that all is fair in love and war. It means people are said to be not bound by standard rules of behaviour when they are in love or war. Most politicians believe that this is also true in elections.

Even as the polling is entering the second stage in the general elections to the 18th Lok Sabha, the campaign across the country has turned extremely vicious and vituperative. Highly distressing signals indicate even a possible eruption of violence can't be ruled out soon in many parts of the country. Unfortunately, very important political leaders deliberately inflame political and communal hate among people who could be driven to take arms against each other.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unprecedentedly inflammatory speech on April 21 at a campaign meeting in Banswara, Rajasthan. “When the Congress-led government was in power, they had said that Muslims have the first right over the country’s assets. This means they will distribute wealth to those with more children and those who are infiltrators. Is this acceptable to you?... This Urban Naxal thinking will not spare even the mangalsutras of my mothers and sisters.”

Modi was referring to a speech made by PM Manmohan Singh 18 years ago. In his address to the National Development Council (NDC) in December 2006, Manmohan Singh said that our priorities should be to uplift the most depressed sections of society, such as the SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities, and women and children. These were his actual lines; “I believe our collective priorities are clear: agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, a critical investment in rural infrastructure, and the essential public investment needs of general infrastructure, along with programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children. The component plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes must be revitalised. We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources. The Centre has many other responsibilities whose demands must be met within the overall resource availability.”

This statement promptly provoked BJP leaders to spring into action and decry it as appeasement of Muslims. The then BJP President Rajnath Singh and........

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