Yechury lashes out at EC over clean chit to PM Modi

PTI, May 1, 2019, 4:52 PM IST

New Delhi: Lashing out at the Election Commission over the clean chit given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on complaints of Model Code of Conduct violations, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury Wednesday said the poll body’s dealing with such cases was “emboldening perpetrators.”

In a letter to the poll body, he said, “Across the country, there is a growing concern about the manner in which the Election Commission of India is dealing with complaints regarding gross violation of the Model Code of Conduct by Narendra Modi”.

The Election Commission Tuesday gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Modi for his speech in Wardha in which he had slammed Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for contesting from Wayanad and had “indicated” that the Kerala constituency had more voters from the minority community.

Citing news reports, Yechury highlighted how the government infrastructure and machinery has been allegedly used by the Prime Minister’s Office for securing information from various ministries, as well as, state and district administrations to provide inputs for preparing his election speeches.

“We would like to pose the same question that we have done in the past. In dealing with violations of Model Code of Conduct, the ECI appears to be not only halting, but carrying on at a pace which is emboldening perpetrators and exemplifies the notion of ‘delayed justice’ amounting to its actual ‘denial’!

“Therefore the question is, is Narendra Modi, a BJP candidate from Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh and a star campaigner for the BJP, is needed to be treated differently from enforcement of MCC for the simple reason that he happens to be the incumbent Prime Minister?,” he said.