‘PM Modi’s address to nation violated MCC’, CPI MP writes to CEC

COmmunist company of bharat (CPI) lawmaker P Sandosh Kumar on  dominicus alleged that the ground government minister Narendra Modi’s televised address to the nation a day ago violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), which is currently in force across five regions.In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Sunday, which HT has seen, Kumar argued that the address — carried on Doordarshan and Sansad TV on Saturday evening — contained partisan assertions and direct attempts to influence public opinion while West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Kerala are mid-election, with the MCC operative until May 6.In the address, PM Modi named the Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Trinamool Congress (TMC), and the Samajwadi Party (SP), accusing them of committing what he called a “foeticide” of the women’s reservation bill after it was defeated in Parliament.The MP argued that using state-funded national broadcaster to carry what was effectively a political speech gave the ruling party an asymmetric advantage that the MCC is designed to prevent.“The use of state resources and publicly funded platforms for disseminating what is essentially a political speech constitutes a grave breach of electoral norms,” Kumar stated in the letter.Congress leader Anil Akkara, who filed a separate complaint the same day, alleged that the PM misused his official position by naming political parties contesting in poll-bound states during the address and called it a “grave breach of election protocols.”“In absolute terms, I am of the view that the opposition should have been offered equal time on all official media channels to voice their concerns and point of view, given the ongoing elections. But the MCC in its present form allows anything not specifically targeted at poll-bound states or Union territories to be done by the Centre or other state governments,” former CEC OP said.The ECI’s own notification from March 16, when the poll schedule was announced, stated that the MCC would apply to the central government regarding announcements or policy decisions concerning the poll-bound states and the Union Territory.Meanwhile, two former CECs have offered their assessments on the matter.Former CEC SY Quraishi has maintained that the EC’s credibility rests on its ability to ensure opposition parties feel genuinely included and protected in the electoral process. On the question of official media access, Quraishi argued that “the asymmetric use of state-funded platforms such as Doordarshan and other official channels during an election period strikes at the principle of equal opportunity that underpins the MCC. The code explicitly prohibits using official mass media for partisan coverage during elections, but does not guarantee opposition parties equivalent airtime on those same platforms to present their position” — a gap, in Quraishi’s view, that goes to the heart of what a level playing field must mean in practice.The EC has not yet responded to either complaint.