EC gives Rahul four more days to explain

Rahul given four days extension by EC to reply

The much anticipated response of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi to the Election Commission (EC)’s notice on his violation of the Model Code of Conduct did not come in on Monday, with Gandhi seeking a few more days to reply.

The EC had, by evening, granted him four more days to respond to charges that he had violated the election code in his election-related speeches in rallies at Churu (Rajasthan) and at Indore (Madhya Pradesh).

Gandhi had outrightly accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of inciting the Muzaffarnagar riots and alleged that the youth from riot-affected Muslim families were being poached upon by Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Congress sources say that Gandhi wants to bolster its case by submitting videographic evidence and SMSes of BJP leaders and legislators, who had given inflammatory speeches, which incited the communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar. In the Twitter world expectedly, hash tag ‘Rahul Gandhi’ trended all day.     

The EC had, on October 31, issued a notice to Gandhi after receiving a series of complaints from BJP leaders. The commission, after examining the CDs of Gandhi’s speeches on October 23 and 24, issued him the notice alleging that he had violated the poll code, making unsubstantiated allegations against political parties; his speech amounted to exacerbating communal tension etc.

Gandhi, in his written request to the EC, urged for a week’s extension on the ground that he had received the EC notice only at 9.30 p.m. on October 31 and cited prior travel commitments during the week ended November 3 as well as holidays due to the festive season as reasons for not being able to reply on time.

Congress sources, speaking to Business Standard, rejected Opposition charges that the Congress was perturbed by the EC notice and was trying to get its act together. Rather a senior Congress leader said, “We are not unduly ruffled. In fact, we intend to counter the EC notice with videographic evidence – the YouTube videos of the inflammatory speeches delivered by BJP legislators. There is also SMS evidence of the messages that were circulated, which heightened communal tension and led to the riots.” The Congress senior leader also added that it could not be ignored that BJP MLA Sangeet Som had been booked under the National Security Act for making hate speeches and his alleged involvement in uploading videos of provocative speeches.

While top BJP leaders, both national and state chiefs, had not lost out on the opportunity to target Rahul Gandhi and made a beeline for the EC, the Congress said it was not perturbed about the charges and was confident of coming out unscathed.