‘Grow a spine or resign,’ Civil society groups tell EC

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: “Grow a spine, or resign” was the encore outside the Chief Electoral Office of the state, here on Seshadri Road, on Saturday, amidst the Lok Sabha elections.

Civic organizations across the country, in a mark of protest, sent postcards to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in Delhi regarding the lack of action against violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

India is polling for the Lok Sabha from April 19. The results for the same will be announced on June 4.

A letter to the ECI, in addition to the complaints filed with the Electoral officers in other cities, pointed out that the voter data revealed in percentages, instead of absolute numbers, was a concern. In the 2019 elections, the data contained numbers of the actual total electors, total voters along with the percentage turnout in 2014 and compared it with 2019 per constituency.

The postcard campaign also demanded the Election Commission to act by its code without any bias. It was alleged that the ECI hadn’t taken any action on the alleged hate speech made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Read more: Unchecked hate? BJP again posts communal video; Cong complains

The PM has made several speeches which pit communities against one another and promote hatred between them on religious lines. This accounts for a violation of the MCC as well as the People’s Representation Act, 1951.

The selective action of the ECI against opposition parties was condemned by the activists. Reports suggest that Randeep Surjewala of the Congress and K Chandrasekhar Rao of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) were banned from campaigning for 48 hours over violating the code of conduct.

Activists demanded that the Prime Minister be banned for 96 hours for his alleged hate speech. The lack of swift actions over the videos posted by the BJP on social media was lambasted. BJP4Karnataka on X posted a video on Muslim Reservations, which the letter to the ECI said spread hatred.

“The video was taken down only after the Elections here, despite an FIR being filed,” stated the letter, signed by over 200 people from various walks of life.

Civic activists urge EC...

• Take action against alleged hate speech, and misinformation spread by political parties
• Condemns release of voter count in percentages suspecting manipulation. Demands voter count be released in absolute numbers.
• Selective action against opposition parties, indicating partiality.
• Failure to address surrogate ads
• Failure to take action against withdrawal and threatening of candidates.