A letter dated April 20 has landed at the Election Commission of India, signed by over 700 people, calling out Prime Minister Narendra Modi for alleged Model Code of Conduct violations. The complaint targets his nationally televised address of April 18.
The signatories, drawn from former civil servants, academics, activists and journalists, addressed the letter to the Chief Election Commissioner. They said the speech amounted to electioneering and partisan propaganda during the MCC period.
The address was broadcast on Doordarshan, Sansad TV and All India Radio. According to a report, the complainants argued that airing it on government-funded platforms gave the ruling party an undue advantage, undermining the level playing field that free and fair elections demand.
The MCC is currently active in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, all heading to polls, with counting scheduled for May 4.
Under the code, ministers are barred from combining official duties with political campaigning or using state machinery for partisan purposes. The letter urged the Commission to examine both the content and the manner of the address and initiate appropriate action.
The complainants didn’t stop there. They want opposition parties to get equal airtime on public broadcasters, provided permission was granted for the telecast in the first place. Some pushed even harder, calling for the speech to be wiped from official platforms altogether if it is found to be in breach.
The letter is not short on credibility either. Among those who signed it are former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, activist Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh, musician and author TM Krishna, and former Union Secretary EAS Sarma. They want the Commission to move fast — to protect, they said, the sanctity of the electoral process that its constitutional mandate requires it to guard.
As for the speech itself, Modi trained his focus on the collapse of the 131st Constitutional Amendment in the Lok Sabha, a bill meant to improve women’s representation. He called its defeat a setback for women and pointed the finger directly at the opposition.
The Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party bore the brunt of his criticism. He said they had stood in the way of the legislation, hurt women in the process, and squandered what he described as a genuine opportunity to give women a stronger voice.
PM Modi also apologised to women for the government’s failure to pass the bill. He said women’s dreams had been crushed. He alleged that the opposition had placed political interests above national interest and that their conduct in Parliament amounted to an attack on the dignity of women.
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