BJP complains against EC ‘censorship’

The party had planned a TV campaign in Kannada where party leader Sushma Swaraj holds the Union Government and the Congress responsible for the exponential rise in food prices. Sushma’s lines are in Kannada, a language that the BJP leader is said to have picked when she fought Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in Bellary Lok Sabha seat.

The state chief electoral officer apparently told the party that the words “Union Government” and “Congress” must be deleted from her lines.

“I’ve already written a letter to the Election Commission protesting the move,” party general secretary Arun Jaitley told The Sunday Express. Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalswamy, however, said the commission had not received any letter till 6.30 pm and that the letter should ideally have been addressed to the state chief electoral officer.

Jaitley said if the Congress had been allowed to praise its Central Government on various fronts in direct and surrogate advertisements, the BJP must have an equal right to point out the shortcomings of the Government. The BJP’s views on price rise might not be palatable to some members of the EC as senior Cabinet ministers in the UPA government had also objected to the politicisation of the price issue. “The EC is a facilitator of democracy, not its oracle,” the BJP leader stated in his letter. The BJP now plans to run the “censored” TV commercial.