NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Tuesday issued a notice to Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala over his “sexist, vulgar and uncivilised” comments against BJP MP and candidate Hema Malini, during campaigning in Haryana. It also wrote to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge pointing to repeated violations by his party leaders of EC’s April 1 advisory asking campaigners to refrain from actions and utterances that may hurt the dignity of women, and sought details of the steps taken by the party to ensure its compliance.
Stating that Surjewala’s comments prima facie violate the provisions of the model code of conduct that restrain parties and candidates from criticising all aspects of private life of leaders and workers of rival parties or making statements that may be malicious or offensive to decency and morality, EC directed the Congress MP to reply to the show cause notice by Thursday 5 pm.
The EC’s action against Surjewala followed a complaint by the BJP.
This being the second instance of a Congress leader making disrespectful and undignified remarks against women candidates — the first being party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate’s jibe against BJP candidate Kangana Ranaut, for which she was pulled up by EC — the commission, in a separate letter to Kharge, underlined that it was unfortunate that such utterances were still being made by Congress campaigners despite it having advised parties to ask their candidates and campaigners not to commit such violations. The poll body asked Kharge to intimate by Friday the steps taken by the Congress to ensure strict compliance of its April 1 advisory.
Reminding the Congress chief that a copy of its order asking Shrinate to be more careful in her future public utterances was shared with him, EC said that he was then asked to “issue specific advisory to your party functionaries, involved in election campaign and in interaction in public domain, not to commit such type of violations.
“The Commission expected that such a serious issue, after (having been) taken up at your level, should have had a restraining effect. However, yet another incident of the…. undignified utterance by a senior political functionary of Indian National Congress namely, Randeep Singh Surjewala….has been brought to the notice of the Commission,” it stated.
Stating that the remarks had caused “great insult to Smt. Hema Malini and disrespect to her position as an MP,” EC told Kharge that “ election campaign can not be allowed to become a platform for any kind of dishonour to women”.
Stating that Surjewala’s comments prima facie violate the provisions of the model code of conduct that restrain parties and candidates from criticising all aspects of private life of leaders and workers of rival parties or making statements that may be malicious or offensive to decency and morality, EC directed the Congress MP to reply to the show cause notice by Thursday 5 pm.
The EC’s action against Surjewala followed a complaint by the BJP.
This being the second instance of a Congress leader making disrespectful and undignified remarks against women candidates — the first being party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate’s jibe against BJP candidate Kangana Ranaut, for which she was pulled up by EC — the commission, in a separate letter to Kharge, underlined that it was unfortunate that such utterances were still being made by Congress campaigners despite it having advised parties to ask their candidates and campaigners not to commit such violations. The poll body asked Kharge to intimate by Friday the steps taken by the Congress to ensure strict compliance of its April 1 advisory.
Reminding the Congress chief that a copy of its order asking Shrinate to be more careful in her future public utterances was shared with him, EC said that he was then asked to “issue specific advisory to your party functionaries, involved in election campaign and in interaction in public domain, not to commit such type of violations.
“The Commission expected that such a serious issue, after (having been) taken up at your level, should have had a restraining effect. However, yet another incident of the…. undignified utterance by a senior political functionary of Indian National Congress namely, Randeep Singh Surjewala….has been brought to the notice of the Commission,” it stated.
Stating that the remarks had caused “great insult to Smt. Hema Malini and disrespect to her position as an MP,” EC told Kharge that “ election campaign can not be allowed to become a platform for any kind of dishonour to women”.