EC will continue to issue advisories if hate speeches are made

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) Notwithstanding objection
raised by Bharatiya Janata Party over India's Election
Commission advisory to it on Varun Gandhi's hate speech, the
electoral body has made it clear that it will continue to take
such action in similar cases.

Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi, while expressing
satisfaction over the conduct of Lok Sabha elections, gave
nine out of 10 to the EC for the massive electoral exercise.

On the issue of Varun's hate speech, he replied in the
affirmative when asked whether the EC would issue advisories
again if such a situation arose.

BJP had objected to issuance of the advisory, saying
the EC had not powers to do so.

"The media attention has been too much on this issue.
The hate speech we encountered, we issue notices in the same
way (in such cases). There were other cases and we did exactly
the same thing," Quraishi told Karan Thapar's 'India Tonight'
programme on CNBC.

Noting that the EC has "no power to disqualify a
candidate", he said "we gave an advice to BJP that since they
said they are distancing themselves from it our advice is why
don't you prove it.

"We could have given a direction. We sent another
advisory to all political parties to read the model code. Of
course the code was prepared by them. We advise them to follow
it in letter and spirit."

On the controversy over EC's advisory on Varun Gandhi's
alleged hate speech issue, Quraishi said EC went by the CD
which contained the speech of the BJP candidate in Pilibhit.

"Our response time had to be quick. We saw the CD and
went by the prima facie (evidence) in judgement and we thought
the CD was fine and took a decision," he said.

Asked why similar advisories were not issued against
people accused in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, he said "we could not
have gone through all the 2,000 cases pending for the last 30
years. Here is an occasion (the hate speech) when an incident
was likely to create rift and social tension and communal
riots."

Asked about his view on the Lok Sabha polls, Quraishi
said "I would give nine out of 10 for the conduct of the
elections and the one which I am deducting is because some
voters did not turn up. ... even some losing candidates have
rung up to congratulate us."

Rejecting charges that clubbing all naxal-hit ares
together for polling led to several killings, the Election
Commissioner said it was a "master stroke" to conduct the
lection together in those areas.

"Bunching the elections together in naxal-affected
areas was no mistake. That scheduling was a master stroke,"
Quraishi said, adding the Commission felt after consultations
with the Home Ministry and others that "if the elections are
done together in 17 naxal-affected states together it will
give us an advantage."

He said the Commission could adopt the "same
scheduling" in holding elections in those areas in future as
well.

Talking about the opinion and exit polls, the Election
Commissioner said these are "manipulated" and should not be
permitted.

"We believe that exit polls and opinion polls are
manipulated. They do influence free and fair polls and every
political party opposed it," he said.
He, however, said the issue is before the Supreme
Court. PTI SGI AKK