EC’s failures are visible to all now

It is unfortunate that courts are now forced to do the work expected of the Election Commission (EC) and sit in judgement on the compliance of parties and candidates with the model code of conduct to be observed during elections.

The Calcutta High Court passed orders restraining the BJP from publishing some advertisements which it had found to be violative of the model code. It found the advertisements to be slanderous and derogatory.

The court also criticised the EC for not addressing the complaints promptly. It is ironic that the EC objected to the court looking into the complaint after it had failed to do so itself.

It was pointed out in the court that the EC had not taken any step in the matter and had issued notice only after the petition was filed in the court. The court rightly asked whether the EC would take action only after the election was over. 

The Kolkata case is not an isolated one. There have been many other cases of failure on the part of the Election Commission to act in time on complaints about violations of the model code.

It has not taken action on the complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi even after a month, except to, inexplicably, send a notice to the BJP president rather than to the individual accused of violating the model code.

The EC has acted only in the case of some lesser persons, though the action was late. The action should be immediate in the case of violations, especially when they involve hate speech and statements that increase divisions between religious or social groups and regions.

The EC has been found grossly wanting in this respect and has given the impression that it did not want to take action in cases that involve highly-placed persons. 

The ongoing campaign has seen resort to hate speech and communal statements on a much larger scale than in all past elections. All parties and leaders have been guilty of this but Prime Minister Modi has led this unseemly trend.

He has often resorted to hate speech against Muslims, misrepresentation, and statements and allegations without basis. He finds a communal angle to beat the Opposition with almost every day and even tried to create a North-South issue by saying that parties from the South have used abusive language for the people of UP.

The Election Commission is undermining its own authority and losing the trust of the people when it fails to take timely action on complaints, especially when it avoids taking action against the high and mighty and is seen as partisan and biased. 

The general guidelines it gave to parties on Wednesday do not change this perception. These guidelines are already known and are there in the model code. The question is what action has the EC taken action in the most egregious cases of violations so far.