Discriminatory, arbitrary, non-transparent, Congress MP Sushmita Dev on EC clean chits to Narendra Modi, Amit Shah

Congress MP Sushmita Dev has filed an additional affidavit in Supreme Court alleging discrimination and arbitrariness by the Election Commission in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah..Dev has filed the affidavit pursuant to the liberty granted by the Court to place on record the orders of Election Commission by which Modi and Shah were given clean chits in complaints alleging violation of Model Code of Conduct..Dev had initially moved the Court citing inaction by the EC in dealing with complaints against Shah and Modi. The Supreme Court had then passed an order on May 2 directing the Election Commission to decide on all the complaints against Modi and Shah before May 6..Pursuant to the same, the EC had passed orders clearing both of them in all complaints alleging MCC violations..In the affidavit filed through advocate Sunil Fernandes, Dev has now contended that the EC has passed various orders in a cryptic manner exonerating Modi and Shah without giving any reasons for the same. This amounts to violation of Supreme Court judgments, the affidavit states..“Respondent-ECI has passed the above orders in a cryptic manner without any reasons whatsoever, in stark violation of the law laid down by this Hon’ble Court”.The petition also alleges discrimination and arbitrariness in the orders passed by the EC in that the EC acted against various other political leaders for statements which were similar in tone, tenor, meaning, purport and intention. This includes Pragya Singh Thakur, Maneka Gandhi, Yogi Adityanath and Mayawati..“The Respondent-ECI has initiated action for violation of the Model Code of Conduct and other relevant sections of the Representation of People Act, 1951 against Smt. Pragya Singh Thakur, Smt. Maneka Gandhi, Shri. Ajay Singh Bisht (aka Yogi Adityanath- presently Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh), Smt. Mayawati and others for statements which were similar in tone, tenor, meaning, purport and intention to Shri. Modi and Shri Amit Shah’s statements mentioned herein.” .The EC has failed to appreciate that the speeches by Modi and Amit Shah amount to corrupt practices under Section 124A of the Representation of People Act and are also punishable under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code as they blatantly promote disharmony and enmity on the grounds of religion, Dev contends..“Respondent-ECI failed to appreciate that the hate speeches delivered by the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Amit Shah are ‘corrupt practices’ under Section 123A of the Representation of People Act, 1951 which ex-facie promote feelings of enmity and hatred between different classes of the citizens of India on grounds of religion. Further, it is also imperative to note that the said speeches are also punishable under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 as they blatantly promote disharmony and feelings of enmity on the grounds of religion and such acts are also likely to prejudice the maintenance of public harmony and tranquility between religious communities.”.Importantly, Dev has also alluded to the fact that one of the Election Commissioners dissented in these orders and that dissenting opinion has been withheld by the EC in its orders..This amounts to complete lack of transparency and arbitrariness in the decision-making process when it comes to complaints against Modi and Shah, the affidavit states..Dev has also referred to a fresh complaint filed by the Indian National Congress against Modi for his allegedly obscene/derogatory remarks about late Rajiv Gandhi..Dev has prayed that appropriate orders be passed by the Court.