After the Supreme Court’s directions to decide on the complaints pending against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah before the apex court hears the case on May 6, the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday gave clean chit to Modi on the third of the nine complaints in which he had said “nuclear bomb is not for Diwali” at Barmer in Rajasthan during a poll campaign on April 21.
The poll body also held that Rahul did not violate the model code of conduct for calling Shah a murder accused.
The EC told the SC that it has already decided two out of the 11 complaints which were filed by the Congress against Modi and Shah for the alleged violation of the model code.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Congress Lok Sabha member Sushmita Dev, who has filed a petition in the SC on the issue, told the court that they have given 11 representations to the EC against the PM and Shah but the EC has taken decision only on two.
“After about five-and-a-half weeks, they (EC) have decided only two representations,” Singhvi told the SC.
The EC said, “By Wednesday (May 8), we are likely to consider all these representations.”
However, the SC ordered, “The remaining representations shall be decided by the EC before we hear the matter again on Monday (May 6).”
On clean chit to Modi, the EC said in its reply to the Congress, “On the certified copy sent by the Returning Officer, Barmer district, the matter has been examined in detail in accordance with the extant advisories, provisions of the MCC and after examination of complete transcript of speech and the Commission took the considered view that in this matter no violation of extant advisories/provisions is attracted.”
Barmer district poll authorities on Monday submitted a factual report to the poll panel after the Congress alleged that he violated the Model Code of Conduct “brazenly” by talking about the armed forces.
The Congress had moved the Election Commission on April 22 alleging that the Prime Minister’s speeches invoked the armed forces, demanding the officials to impose a campaign ban on him for some time.
While giving a clean chit to Rahul, EC officials said the “complaint was examined in detail and after examination of the complete transcript of speech sent by the district electoral officer of Jabalpur, the Commission is of the considered view that no violation of the model code of conduct is made out.”
Rahul made the purported remark during an election rally in Sihora district of Madhya Pradesh on April 23.
Attacking the BJP president, Rahul reportedly said, “Murder accused BJP chief Amit Shah. Wah, kya shaan hai! (Wow, what a glory!)” The BJP had complained to the EC about the comment. The remark had prompted a strong rebuttal from Shah, who questioned the Opposition leader’s “legal knowledge” and said the “fake” charge was dismissed as “politically motivated” by the court long ago.
“Let me tell you the gist of the order. I was slapped with a fake case and the court has already passed its order that it was a politically motivated allegation and was without any evidence. I don’t want to make any comment on the legal knowledge of Rahul,” he said.