New Delhi, Apr 23:
The Congress Monday met the Election Commission of India and sought action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his controversial speech in Rajasthan on Sunday where he named one community and accused it of grabbing country’s resources.
A delegation of the party, including Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Gurdeep Singh Sappal, met the ECI at Nirvachan Sadan here.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Singhvi said four or five elements in the PM’s speech were “deeply, deeply objectionable.” “He had named a community. He has talked of religion blatantly; he has talked of communal and community blatantly,” he pointed out.
He said the PM has linked it with deprivation of resources for the majority and garnering a monopolisation of resources.
Singhvi said the PM also brought up the Hindu imagery of no less than the ‘Mangal sutra’ in clear violation of Section 123, the basic principle of not allowing incitement and inflammation of communal passions.
“We respect the office he holds. He is as much our Prime Minister as he is yours and the BJP’s. The higher the post he holds, the greater the obligation on him to exercise restraint,” Singhvi said.
Maintaining that it was something very serious, Singhvi said the Congress hopes the commission will act “because the Election Commission itself is on trial and, irrespective of the status of the person who has done this, appropriate action as in other cases will and must follow shortly”.
The Congress delegation also raised the issue of the Lok Sabha election in Surat constituency, where the BJP candidate has been declared winner “unopposed”. He argued that it cannot be a coincidence that all four people who proposed the candidate’s name denied their signatures while the candidate himself went missing for some time.
Gurdeep Sappal said that the delegation also raised the matter of anonymous hoardings carrying derogatory caricatures of opposition leaders in Delhi, which have still not been removed even after the party complained about it three weeks ago.
