Addressing a rally on April 1 in Wardha, Modi had claimed that Congress had coined the term “Hindu Terror” to defame the peace-loving Hindu community. “How can the Congress be forgiven for insulting the Hindus in front of the world? Weren’t you hurt when you heard the word ‘Hindu terror’? How can a community known for peace, brotherhood and harmony be linked with terrorism? In the thousand years of history, not a single incident shows an act of Hindu terrorism,” Modi had said.
He had also gone on to claim that the Congress was banking on Muslim votes as it was unsure of getting votes from Hindus, referring to Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest from Wayanad without naming him, but alluding his decision to the strong presence of Muslims in the region. Modi had said, “Leaders of that party are now scared of contesting from constituencies dominated by majority (Hindu) population. That is why they are forced to take refuge in places where the majority is in a minority.” This had prompted the Congress party to file a complaint with the EC.
But the EC ruled that Modi’s words did not amount to a Code of Conduct violation. A senior EC official told The Hindu, “The matter has been examined in detail in accordance with the extant guidelines/provisions of the Model Code of Conduct, the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra. Accordingly, Commission is of the considered view that in this matter no such violation has been noticed.”
In the second instance of a decision that went in Modi’s favour, the EC ruled that his April 9 speech in Latur where he urged first time voters to dedicate their votes to the Pulwama martyrs, was not a violation of the Election Model Code of Conduct either. Modi who was addressing an election rally had said, “I want to tell the first-time voters: can your first vote be dedicated to the veer jawans (valiant soldiers) who carried out the air strike in Pakistan. Can your first vote be dedicated to the veer shaheed (brave martyrs) of Pulwama (terror attack).”
But the EC once again ruled that this was not a poll code violation. The EC said, “The matter has been examined in detail in accordance with the extant advisories, provisions of the Model Code of Conduct…after examination of the complete transcript of speech of 11 pages, as per the certified copy sent by the Returning Officer, 40-Osmanabad parliamentary constituency, the Commission is of the considered view that in this matter no such violation of the extant advisories/provisions is attracted.”
But the final nail in the coffin of democracy came when the EC rejected the nomination applications of multiple candidates contesting the election from the Varanasi parliamentary constituency. Varanasi is the constituency of PM Narendra Modi and his opponents included former BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav who was dismissed from service after he exposed the unpalatable food that BSF jawans were forced to eat. The EC rejected his nomination after he allegedly failed to get a Clearance Form from the BSF for contesting elections. The form is supposed to clarify that he was not dismissed for corruption and disloyalty to the state.”
It is noteworthy that Yadav had earlier filed nomination as an independent on April 24. At the time the EC had not made any such demand. It is only when he refiled nomination as the Samajwadi Party candidate that the EC demanded a Clearance Certificate. The demand was made at 6:15 pm on April 30 and Yadav had until 11 am the following day to submit the application. Though he did manage to submit the NOC, it is alleged that he did not do so within the stipulated time. In a statement, Returning Officer Surendra Singh Yadav said, “Shri Tej Bahadur has stated that he has been dismissed from government service on April 19, 2017. Five years has not elapsed and his nomination paper is neither accompanied by a certificate issued in the prescribed manner to the effect that he has not been dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the state, nor he has been able to produce any such certificate by 11 am of May 1, 2019. Therefore, the nomination paper… is hereby rejected.”
Tej Bahadur will now approach the Supreme Court and the Samajwadi Party has reverted to its original choice Shalini Yadav, whose nomination remained a back-up in case something went wrong with Tej Bahadur’s application.
Meanwhile, the EC also rejected the nomination applications filed by a few independent candidates including turmeric farmers who were contesting elections from Varanasi to highlight their plight in wake of the huge agrarian crisis and absence of fair price for their crop. However, the EC insists that it is not biased and that the applications were rejected as they were either incomplete or that the applicants had failed to follow proper procedure.
A senior EC official told Firstpost, “We could not understand why so many candidates waited till the last minute to file their nominations. Nominations began to be filed from 22 April, and the last date was 29 April. If these individuals had applied earlier, then after scrutiny of their entries, they would have had the time to rectify their errors. Many of them had incomplete forms; others didn’t know they needed their proposal to be signed by 10 people. Only candidates with the backing of a political party need a proposal from just one person.”