Modi mocking EC, EC thinks PM is above law: Yechury

Filing a fresh complaint against Narendra Modi for his latest "outrageous" remarks on Balakot strikes, the CPI(M) on Sunday said the Prime Minister is "mocking" the Election Commission while the poll body acts as if he is above the electoral process.

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora inviting his attention to Modi's latest TV interview in which the Prime Minister claimed that he went ahead with the air strike despite bad weather and against professional expert advice because the clouds would hide Indian fighter jets from Pakistani radars. Modi's claims were ridiculed on social media as radars could detect aircraft even in cloudy and rainy weather.

Modi's speech in Kushinagar on Sunday was brought before the Commission where the Prime Minister said that why people are worried when Modi is killing terrorists and whether armed forces should go to the Commission seeking permission during election season.

In his letter, he said the Commission’s recent decisions on Modi for such violations were "widely perceived as though he is being treated to be outside the purview" of the Model Code of Conduct and guidelines. "It thus becomes our bounden duty to register our protest against further brazen violations," he said.

Yechury said in the interview Modi gave out operational details of a sensitive military mission, with a purpose to influence the voters during the silent period of the campaign needs to be recorded and acted upon by the Commission.

"His behaviour and statements are in clear and deliberate violation of the guidelines which were reissued and reiterated by the Election Commission before the first round of polling, which made it clear that the armed forces which belong to all of India, cannot be a subject for hyperbolic and false claims by any party for garnering votes," he said.

Yechury said it appeared that Modi was "mocking the Election Commission by violating all rules, codes and guidelines with impunity with damaging consequences for our democracy".

He said CPI(M) had brought similar incidents of Modi's violations to Commission's notice earlier but the Commission "seems to think that Modi and (BJP president) Amit Shah are above the electoral process and the Model Code of Conduct does not apply to them...I hope that the Election Commission will now prove them wrong and initiate prompt and suitable action against Modi."

In the latest letter, Yechury had also referred to Modi's speech in Kushinagar where the Prime Minister is quoted as saying, "today terrorists were killed by our Army in Kashmir. Now some people are worried as to why did Modi kill the terrorists when voting is underway? An armed terrorist is attacking, do my jawans go to the Election Commission to seek permission to kill him?”