Modi Panauti' Remark: EC Notice to Rahul

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India issued a notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for using terms like “panauti” (unlucky) and “jaibkatra” (pickpocket) against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a rally in Rajasthan on Wednesday. Terming it a violation of Model Code of Conduct, the EC asked Rahul Gandhi to give his response by Saturday on why action should not be taken against him.

The notice was issued to Rahul Gandhi over a complaint by the BJP, which claimed the Congress MP “had made wild allegations and spoke in a derisive and obnoxious manner” about the PM. Apart from using these terms, Rahul Gandhi also said the PM had in the last nine years waived off loans worth '14,00,000 crores of top billionaires.

In its notice to Mr Gandhi, the EC said the BJP has alleged that comparing the PM to a “jaibkatra” and using the word “panauti” was unbecoming of a senior leader of a national political party. The BJP also argued the claim of loan waivers to businessmen was not borne out by facts and Mr Gandhi’s comments were in violation of Section 123(4) of the Representation of the People Act, Sections 171G, 504, 505(2) and 499 of the IPC and provisions of the model code.

The EC noted that the MCC provisions say that “criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortations should be avoided” It added that words like “panauti” ex-facie falls in the equity of prohibition of Section 123, sub clause 2(a) (ii), which terms it as part “corrupt practices” to use such words for any person that “induce or attempt to induce a candidate or an elector to believe that he, or any person in whom he is interested, will become or will be rendered an object of divine displeasure or spiritual censure.”

The EC also mentioned its general advisory issued in May this year, in which it had expressed concerns at plummeting level of political discourse during the campaigning period, and advised all to operate within the confines of the MCC and follow decency in public discourse.

A Hindi slang word, “panauti” loosely refers to someone who brings bad luck.