The scourge of using religion in polls is very much alive, as is happening in Uttarakhand
Will the next Assembly elections in Uttarakhand be steered by Lords Ganesha and Ram? Only if the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India do not immediately and heavily come down on such a provocatively religious campaign proposal. It is the brainchild of Congress general secretary Harish Rawat, a former Chief Minister of the State. He is the party’s campaign committee head. Rawat has two justifications for making “Jai Shri Ganesh” the party’s war cry for the forthcoming Assembly elections. One, he will not allow the BJP to “hijack the word Hindu for political gains” as it has “reduced Hindus to a mere vote bank”. Two, Ganesha is always worshipped first, “which is why we have selected this slogan”. The issue is, he is violating a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that “an appeal in the name of religion, race, caste, community or language is impermissible under the Representation of the People Act, l95l, and would constitute a corrupt practice sufficient to annul the election”. The previous round of Assembly elections witnessed a violation of the order by all political parties during the West Bengal elections. Mamata Banerjee of the TMC was accosted by BJP workers shouting “Jai Shri Ram” slogans wherever she went to address meetings. She herself used words with “religious overtones”, as the Election Commission quoted in its April 2021 order banning her from campaigning for 24 hours.
Last year, in the campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections, the Commission imposed a 72-hour ban on then Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur and a 96-hour ban on BJP MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma for statements that could “aggravate existing differences and create mutual hatred between different religious communities”. Significantly, the Supreme Court order on not using religion in elections had come in January 2017 even as Uttar Pradesh was facing Assembly elections. It faces elections again, along with Uttarakhand. In a way, Rawat may have done a yeoman service — BJP campaign managers would elatedly feel — by being the first to bite the religious bullet. The biggest worry is that given the high stakes in the coming round of elections, communal and religious rhetoric would be at its shrillest. It is best handled at once by both the apex court and the poll panel taking suo moto cognisance of Rawat’s statement and reiterating their previous order. As it is, several petitions are expected to be filed in UP courts as soon as the first political leader publicly refers to the under-construction Ram temple in Ayodhya in a pre-election speech. Should not the Supreme Court take this opportunity to cover two more loopholes? One is banning the mention of religious affairs and promises in political manifestoes. The other is using symbols that have obvious religious connotations but do not strictly fall under the sections proscribed by the law. The politicians got away with it in West Bengal.