A day after comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a “poisonous snake” and later expressing regret, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, the head of the BJP in Telangana, wrote to the Election Commission on Friday pleading with it to lodge a FIR against the former and prevent him from running for office in the upcoming Karnataka elections.
The state chief of the BJP demanded immediate action from the EC, alleging that Kharge’s comments violated several clauses of the Model Code of Conduct, including Paragraph 3.8.2.(ii) (Nobody should make any statements that would amount to an attack on the personal life of any person), Paragraph 4.3.1 (political parties and candidates shall refrain from criticising all aspects of private life), and Paragraph 4.3.2 (maintain a high standard of the election campaign).
Kharge said, “PM Modi is like a poisonous snake. If you try to test whether it is poisonous or not, you will die,” while addressing an electoral rally in Naregal in the Karnataka district of Gadag.
In response, Chugh said in his letter that “in Indian society, comparing anyone to a ‘poisonous snake’ projects such a person as an enemy, untrustworthy, unfaithful, treacherous, and deceitful.”
We should also point out that Kharge and his group have committed this offence before. The Commission may take note of the fact that the Congress Party recently made death threats against PM Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party by chanting “Modi Teri Kabr Khudegi” (PM Modi’s tomb will be dug) or by comparing him to a 100-headed Ravana. In their blatant efforts to demonise and disparage Prime Minister Modi, the Indian National Congress and its leaders, especially Mallikarjun Kharge, have a clear pattern, the author of the letter said.
He continued by saying that Kharge’s comment should be subject to Section 499 of the IPC defamation penalty.
