BJP challenges poll panel's powers
Apr 9, 2007 - 10:28:11 PM
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However, both Advani and Rajnath Singh discreetly avoided condemning the highly derogatory and anti-Muslim contents of the CD.
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By IANS,
[RxPG] New Delhi/Lucknow, April 9 - The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party - Monday hardened its stance in the controversy over a 'communally charged' CD as it said the Election Commission had no powers to derecognise it as a national party while the assembly elections were underway in Uttar Pradesh.
A BJP delegation of party vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, general secretary Arun Jaitley and spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad appeared before the three-member Election Commission following its summons to the BJP and other political parties that had demanded its de-recognition as a national party and freezing its election symbol.
The others at the all-party meet included former prime minister V.P. Singh's Jan Morcha, the first complainant in this issue, the Bahujan Samaj Party -, the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist -.
The BJP's Uttar Pradesh legislature party leader had April 4 released a CD in Lucknow and journalists who received the CD in their media kits said it contained audiovisual material inciting communal hatred.
At the hearing in the Election Commission headquarters at the Nirvachan Sadan here, the BJP said: 'The request for de-recognition can render the election process into a mockery... The deprivation of an election symbol midway during an election amounts to shifting the goalpost and directly impinges upon the conduct of free and fair elections.
'If during the course of elections an uncertainty is created with regard to the right of a political party to contest elections effectively or otherwise, the Election Commission becomes an impediment in the course of conduct of free and fair elections.
'The act of the Election Commission may actually be inconsistent with its constitutional obligations,' stated the BJP.
The BJP leaders also questioned the objectivity of the panel, arguing that since they had gone to court against the appointment of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla, he should not sit in any hearing against the BJP.
The BJP has denied any role in the production of the said CD. The party maintains that it 'has not produced, prepared, displayed or distributed the impugned CD. The CD does not form a part of official campaign material of BJP; the CD has not been seen or approved by the leadership of the BJP; the party cannot be held responsible for an unauthorised act of an individual'.
Meanwhile, BJP president Rajnath Singh offered to court arrest in Lucknow in response to a complaint on his alleged role in preparing the CD, but police refused to arrest him saying they were still investigating the matter.
Rajnath Singh went to the Hazratganj police station along with hundreds of his supporters and two former BJP presidents, Murli Manohar Joshi and M. Venkaiah Naidu.
Talking to the media later, Rajnath Singh said: 'A high-level probe needs to be ordered to find out how and why an FIR - was lodged against the BJP president, which simply speaks volumes of the motivated working of the Election Commission.'
Asked if he agreed with the contents of the CD, Singh shot back, 'Well, we have already taken action against a party functionary whose lapse led to this controversy.'
Also in the Uttar Pradesh capital, BJP stalwart L.K. Advani slammed the poll panel for filing a criminal complaint against Rajnath Singh.
Addressing a crowded press conference, he said: 'The act - was not only anti-democratic, but it was also stupid to conceive that a national party that has ruled the country for six years could be de-recognised on such flimsy charges.
'I have been closely associated with different elections since 1952 and cannot recall a single case where the Election Commission has gone out of its way to initiate a criminal case against any senior political leader even when their parties were flayed and condemned for committing serious violations of the election code of conduct.'
Blaming the Congress for what he termed as an 'anti-BJP tirade', Advani said it 'simply reflected the Congress party's anxiety about the unstoppable progress being currently made by the BJP'.
However, both Advani and Rajnath Singh discreetly avoided condemning the highly derogatory and anti-Muslim contents of the CD.
In an FIR lodged by the poll panel, Singh and BJP's Uttar Pradesh veteran Lalji Tandon had been pointedly held responsible for the circulation of the CD. It had been formally released along with other publicity material at a party function chaired by Tandon here last week.
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