The Election Commission on Sunday issued a notice to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in connection with the “merchants of death” remark on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh has also been served a notice for violating the moral code of conduct during the Gujarat Assembly elections. Singh had made remarks about the "existence of Hindu terrorism in Gujarat".
Accepting the EC’s move as a vindication for BJP, party Spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told CNN-IBN, “Congress leaders like Sonia Gandhi had deliberately provoked Narendra Modi. There have been so many flip-flops in the past by the Congress that it was bordering on being ridiculous.”
Meanwhile, EC sources have told CNN-IBN that legal experts are examining Modi's preliminary reply regarding the "merchants of death" remark.
"Modi's reply requires careful examination. Therefore, no decision has been taken by the EC. His reply would be examined by the Commission," a EC source was quoted by PTI as saying.
On December 3, Sonia had referred to those ruling the state as “liars, dishonest and merchants of fear and death.”
The next day, Modi while speaking at an election rally called the Congress chief “a merchant of death” in return.
However, in his reply to the EC, Modi has denied calling Sonia by such a name. He wrote, “I deny the charge in its entirety. The (newspaper) comments (are) inspired by false imputation. The EC notice is issued on the basis of unverified and false media reports.”
Criticising the Commission, Modi said his speech was a “political response to Mrs Sonia Gandhi referring to me as those who rule the Gujarat as a maut ke saudagar (merchants of death). Surely, it cannot be policy of the Election Commission first to ignore the violation of the Code of Conduct in her statement and then censor my political response to that statement.”
The EC had earlier issued a notice to CM, Narendra Modi for justifying the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh during an election speech. But the BJP had gone on the offensive saying the Commission must act against Sonia too, if it has to be seen as impartial.
Narendra Modi had filed his reply to the EC notice on Saturday. But the Commission is unlikely to take a decision on it on Sunday.
After the meeting that lasted two hours the EC has now come up with serving notices to both Sonia Gandhi and Digvijay Singh saying that they have violated the model code of conduct under Rule 1 and 3. However, the EC has yet not replied in how many day the congress should reply, though usually it gives 14 days to reply.