Model code flouted? EC forms panel

The Election Commission (EC) has set up a committee to examine if Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday violated the model code of conduct by announcing on TV that India had successfully conducted an anti-satellite missile test.

This follows questions raised by Opposition parties.

“The matter related to the address of the Prime Minister to the nation on electronic media today afternoon has been brought to the notice of the Election Commission of India. The Commission has directed a Committee of Officers to examine the matter immediately in the light of Model Code of Conduct,” the poll-panel stated in a press-release issued in the evening.

The Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora tasked the committee with carefully “examining” the video recording as well as the transcript of the speech the Prime Minister delivered while announcing the success of the Mission Shakti on Doordarshan.

The committee is headed by Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena, who heads the division at the EC headquarters overseeing enforcement of the model code of conduct.

Arora, along with the two other Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, may again review the matter on Thursday, after receiving the report from the committee.

The EC will study if Prime Minister’s announcement on Mission Shakti on Wednesday deserved an exemption from the model code of conduct as it was related to national security, sources said.

The Model Code of Conduct came into force on March 10, the day the EC announced the schedule of the Lok Sabha polls as well as the elections to the legislative assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party highlighted the success of Mission Shakti as a significant achievement of the government led by it.

‘Politicising science’

Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), however, wrote a letter to the CEC asking if the poll-panel had given permission to Prime Minister to address the nation and to politicize the success of the scientists of the country. He pointed out that it was a clear violation of the Model Code of Conduct. He was echoed by D Raja of the Communist Party of India.

Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress said that her party would lodge a complaint with the EC against Prime Minister for flouting the Model Code of Conduct.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati too criticized Prime Minister for trying to take credit for the anti-satellite missile test.

The Congress president Rahul Gandhi congratulated the scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation for the success of the Mission Shakti, but ridiculed Prime Minister.