The Election Commission on Friday de-fanged Uttar Pradesh Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and BJP’s Amit Shah by banning any public meetings, processions or road shows by them in Uttar Pradesh.
The Election Commission (EC) took note of the “revenge” remarks made by both leaders in the riot-torn districts of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli and also directed State authorities to initiate criminal proceedings against them.
The EC directed the Chief Secretary to ensure that no act of commission or omission was resorted to by Amit Shah and Azam Khan that may affect public tranquility and law and order.
The EC was even critical of the Samajwadi Party Government’s “soft-pedaling” on the issue, manifest by non-registration of FIR against Khan and failing to deal with a sensitive issue of this nature with alacrity.
The three-page order by the EC said: “No permission should be granted for holding public meetings, public processions, public rallies, road shows, etc., by the district administration, where the above two leaders are expected or likely to participate.”
The decision followed a high-level meeting of the full commission headed by CEC VS Sampath and Election Commissioners HS Brahma and SNA Zaidi.
“These statements are, inter alia, promoting feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will and creating disharmony between different religious communities on the ground of religion. Further, these provocative statements being made by them are highly prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious communities and also likely to disturb peace and public tranquility,” the EC order said.
In order to ensure the free and fair polling atmosphere was not further vitiated, the panel directed under Article 324 of the Constitution, immediate registration of FIRs and launch of criminal proceedings against the two leaders, wherever the same had not been instituted so far.
The EC said it has been observing with serious concern that Khan and Shah have been making highly inflammatory speeches during the course of the current election campaign for lok Sabha polls.
The poll body said the statements and public utterances of Shah and Khan were made with “deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings and religious beliefs” of people. Coming down heavily on the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party Government in UP, the order said: “Particularly, no FIR seems to have been filed against Azam Khan so far and the commission is of the view that the State Government machinery is soft-pedaling in taking required action against him so that his undesirable activities could have been properly and effectively checked.”
The court also directed Chief Electoral Officers and state administration to promptly take note of media reports about Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violations and to intervene and take effective follow-up action. It held that the DEO or District Magistrate and SP will be responsible for launching proceedings for violation of the MCC and under relevant electoral offences in future instances.