New Delhi: The Congress filed a petition in the Supreme Court claiming that the Election Commission refused to act on a complaint against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for making “hate speeches” and “using” the armed forces for “political propaganda” during the election campaign. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi will hear the plea on Tuesday.
The poll body announced that the full commission will on the same day sit to hear the complaints of model code of conduct violation against Modi, Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
In an apparent jibe on Modi, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu tweeted: “A wrong vote can make your children chaiwala, pakodewala or chowkidar. Better prevent and prepare, rather than repent and repair.”
How did the channels report these stories and more?
Hindi channels
NDTV India
Anchor Ravish Kumar discussed the EC’s silence on complaints against Modi.
The programme showed Congress MP Sushmita Dev, who petitioned the Supreme Court, questioning: “We are saying our complaints may be right or wrong but why is the Election Commission silent against PM?” She also noted that the EC has acted against other leaders like Mayawati, Azam Khan, Navjot Singh Sidhu and even Adityanath and Maneka Gandhi, all the while remaining silent on a complaint against Modi for over 20 days.
“EC has to tell us and give the reasons, it cannot stay quiet,” she said, hoping that the Supreme Court’s intervention would stir it into action.
The channel also showed Deputy EC Umesh Sinha announcing that a full commission would meet on April 30 to discuss and decide the complaints against the three leaders.
Kumar asked “is this such a big decision” that a full commission has to meet. He said the main issue is the EC’s inaction on the complaint against Modi’s speech in Latur on April 9 in which he had referred to the armed forces. He asked why no action had been taken till date. “The main question is if the PM is following the model code in the right spirit.”
The channel also took note of a story in Scroll.in showing how the NITI Aayog has been providing information to the PM for use in elections. Kumar said the portal reported that this information pertained to caste and religion data as well as other details of the districts in which Modi was to address rallies. The story, he said, relied on e-mail trails.
The story also referred to how collectors in Maharashtra were also asked for information about districts in which the PM was to attend rallies, one of them being Gondia.
Also read: Did Modi Break the Same Law that Got Indira Debarred – and Brought on the Emergency?
Aaj Tak
The channel also reported the EC matter and gave date-wise details of the complaints that the Commission would take up. It reported that the “BJP also reached EC against false complaints about Modi”.
It said during the day the Supreme Court also heard the complaint against Rahul Gandhi that he had misquoted the apex court verdict in the Rafale case saying it meant that “chowkidar chor hai’.
The channel also recalled how the apex court earlier reprimanded the EC for saying it has little power and it was only thereafter that it imposed restrictions on campaigning by some leaders who were found involved in hate speech.
Zee News
Anchor-editor Sudhir Chaudhary gave a spin to how Sri Lanka was dealing with post-Easter Day bombings. Pointing out that the government there has banned the wearing of any cloth that covers the face and hides identity, he said, “Muslim groups there are telling people to abide by government order. They are also refusing to bury the suicide bombers as per Islamic tradition.”
The channel also showed a press conference by the apex body of Islamic theologians in Sri Lanka, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathus Ulama, in this regard, saying they were handing out the biggest punishment to such terrorists by denying them burial rights.
Then Chaudhary went on to say: “We even say that terrorists should be burnt along with garbage instead of being given a decent burial.” He also held that the “Indian society can learn a lot” from the Sri Lankan example but noted that terror sympathisers here would not let that happen.
ABP News
The channel ran a number of headlines to show how elections in West Bengal are always accompanied by violence. “Bangal ki rajniti ka rakth charitra” (The bloody character of Bengal’s politics) was the tagline for the show.
Headlines in Hindi, which translated to “Why does WB poll not happen without sticks?”, “For a win, Mamata relies on goonda politics?” and “Why are bombs, bullets used in every election in West Bengal?” accompanied the story.
The story also pointed out how violence was reported from parts of Asansol and Birbhum during polling on Monday.
It also had a headline, “Modi says 40 TMC legislators in touch with me” which indicated how the Lok Sabha poll outcome may weaken the Mamata Banerjee government in the state.
English channels
NDTV 24X7
In ‘Left, Right and Centre’, the channel discussed the low voter turnout in Mumbai and the reasons thereof. “Mumbai Voter Turnout 54%” read a headline.
Anchor Nidhi Razdan asked the participants the reasons for the same.
Columnist Bachi Karkaria commented on the pattern of low voter turnout in upscale areas saying it was “sad that the little black dot has not acquired the same social status as a Prada bag”. She also reasoned that “people have been very dissatisfied with what happened in the last five years” and “do not want the hegemony to return”.
The most affluent of Mumbai’s seats, South Mumbai recorded a 2% drop in polling from 2014, the channel reported.
Also read: Why I Choose Not to Vote
Radio jockey and youth ambassador for Election Commission, Malishka, said a long weekend could be one of the probable reasons for the low turnout. “A lot of people told me nearby resorts are full,” she explained.
Further, she said: “Mumbai is a stressed city and there is a lot of disillusionment among youth and this may have contributed to the low polling percentage.”
Razdan quipped that “disillusionment sounds like a bad excuse” and pointed out how in every phase the voter turnout this time has been lower than in the 2014 polls.
Shaina NC of BJP said her party ran a campaign titled “proud to be a first time voter” to encourage the youth to vote. She said the general awareness has increased and there is a need for people to realise that if they want to improve, change or criticise the system or government, they have to start voting.
Times Now
With #CongInsultsAamAadmi and headlines like “Sidhu follows Mani Shankar”, “Sidhu – Wrong vote can make your child chaiwala” and “BJP slams Cong ‘elitist’ mindset” the channel took up Sidhu’s latest attack on Modi.
The channel line was that while there are “Dynasts in CWC”, the “Poor sweat it out for a living”. It saw Sidhu’s attack on Modi as his ridiculing “chai and pakodawallahs”. A headline, “Sidhu snubs working class” illustrated just this.
Republic TV
Sidhu’s barb also provided the main point of discussion to this channel. It used #CongInsultsPoor and headlines like “The 2019 ‘Chaiwala’ moment” and “Bringing back 2014 strategy” to describe how the cricketer-politician’s verbal attack may boomerang on the Congress.
Anchor-editor Arnab Goswami took a moral high ground on the subject saying, “What has Priyanka Vadra done in her life to deserve the status she does – what is her source of income – what job has she done in her life? On the other hand, he said, ordinary people study and work hard and do not live off any entitlement.
Goswami termed Sidhu’s statement “an insult to those who put in hard work”. “Is it a crime to be poor and earn a livelihood?” he asked.
He also said: “It is far better to be honest hard working chaiwala, pakodawala, chowkidar than to be Robert Vadra”.
As Goswami then tried to draw in Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Suneet Chopra into this debate, he retorted saying: “I cannot agree with you because you are defaming somebody.”
Goswami then attacked Chopra: “He believes in the Robert Vadra school of economics. Sad you support Vadra, oppose chowkidar, shame on you.”
Not one to give up, Chopra stood his ground and said: “The question here is honesty – I am not supporting such people – you are purposely creating an opposition that does not exist. The real question is choosing between an honest chaiwala and a dishonest chaiwala.”
India Today
In his show, Rajdeep Sardesai also took up the issue of “EC sitting on Cong pleas”. He said his take on the issue was that the “2019 election has been a trial by fire – there have been repeated complaints of bias against EC by the opposition”.
Sardesai said Congress the has accused the EC of going soft on top BJP leadership, saying the top party leader engaged in political propaganda around armed forces despite the poll panel banning it.
Now that the Congress has taken the battle to the apex court, he said the BJP has also filed a complaint that the Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused Shah of being a murderer.
He said that as a “gaping trust deficit” stares at the commission, people would be keenly watching the decisions of the poll panel and the apex court.