Click to play videoThe Election Commission on Thursday decided to issue a notice to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi after his controversial justification of the Sohrabuddin fake encounter. Modi had on Tuesday shocked the nation when at a rally he said Sohrabuddin “deserved” his death.
But on Thursday, at another rally in Katlal, he squarely blamed Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi for his justification of Sohrabuddin’s death.
He later also backtracked saying fake police encounters "cannot be accepted" and he has never justified it.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat government's counsel in the case, K T S Tulsi, has already withdrawn from the case.
Modi now has to explain to the EC by Saturday, how he did not break the model code of conduct in his speech in Mangrol on Tuesday. So should politicians be prosecuted for provocative speeches of hate? That was the question discussed on the show Face The Nation hosted by Vidya Shankar Aiyar.
On the panel to debate the issue were Lord Meghnad Desai, writer and noted economist, Ashok Desai, senior lawyer at the Supreme Court and Prakash Javadekar, BJP spokesperson.
Party-pooper
While on the issue of EC issuing Modi a notice the BJP seems to have washed its hands off the case, Prakash Javadekar disagreed. “We believe in constitutional mechanism. Maybe the Congress does not since the party chief called Modi, an elected Chief Minster, a ‘merchant of death.’ And I would really want to know what is communal about what he said. He was talking against terrorism. Why are you communalising terrorism? We don’t recognize terrorism by religion,” he said.
But K T S Tulsi claimed the exact opposite, claiming that the Gujarat government is against fake encounters. So wasn’t Modi inciting people just when the elections are around the corner?
“No. He made it very clear that fake encounters are unacceptable. Sohrabuddin was a phenomenon, why are you making it an individual name?” asked Javadekar.
Should Modi be prosecuted for his hate speech in that case? “Modi can be prosecuted because although he asked a rhetorical question, what he was asking was vigilante justice and it was clearly to incite violence,” said Ashok Desai.
“He can be prosecuted for abetment if an offence takes place. But more importantly, Mr Javadekar should be worried about Modi. He forgets the similar speeches made by Bal Thakeray about attacking Muslims. It resulted in both Ramesh Prabhu and Thackeray being disqualified by the EC,” added Desai.
But the actual result was that Thackeray was just banned from voting for six years. So was that any measure to keep anyone from indulging in the kind of speeches being made by Modi?
“But BJP should be more worried because any candidate that uses Modi’s speeches is at the risk of being disqualified from sitting as an MLA, not merely voting,” said Desai.
Making mockery of democracy
It is a common ploy for politicians to say whatever they wish to at the time of elections and then claim it was said in the name of democracy. Should the Government take that space away from politicians?
“In general I’m against criminalizing acts of speech. They should be allowed maximum freedom in a democracy. In fact I think Modi’s speech was quite clever because he did not use the word Muslim nor did he actually say Sohrabuddin had it coming. He said terrorism had it coming. So I think it would be stretching the case quite a bit if one was to prosecute him,” said Lord Meghnad Desai.
Under the People’s Represention Act, Section 153 A, says ‘on promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language.’ In the speech, Modi said it was an ‘insult to Gujarat’. That is enough for the speech to be called ‘inciting’.
“I think because people don’t like Narendra Modi, I don’t like him either, they read too much into what he says. Call him a fascist, but here he has not said anything he hasn’t said before,” Lord Meghnad Desai added.
Who’s to blame?
Modi claims Sonia Gandhi provoked him into making the justification by calling him a ‘merchant of death’. “I had kept quiet but Sonia provoked me. I felt the need to tell Sonia the truth,” Modi was reported as saying.
"This is politics. This is how it’s done. She knew how to provoke him. She’s clever and she got under his skin and he reacted. A healthy democracy thrives on thrust and counter thrust. At the end of it, people decide,” said Lord Meghnad Desai.
Law provides plenty penance against such speeches at election time. “In the UK, you can say I’m Christian, vote for me. He’s Muslim, don’t vote for him. But in India one cannot do it. That’s how we were successful in disqualifying Thackeray. So in India we must have such restraint. For example, one the election process commences, certain kind of speeches are barred,” said Ashok Desai.
So what was BJP’s stance on the issue? “We will be putting up all the facts before the EC and we are very sure it will not look at the bias aspect. It will take a complete view of it and in the end it is the people who will decide,” concluded Javadekar.
SMS poll results
Should politicians be prosecuted for provocative speeches of hate?
Yes: 85 per cent
No: 15 per cent
CNN-IBN Editorial
Purveyors of hatred in public should be criminally prosecuted. Nothing justifies it. Not the party they belong to, not their own perverted rationalisation, not even the heat of electioneering. Model codes of conduct have so far been a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance. The People's Representation Act has remained toothless. The Indian Penal Code is ignored. All governments have been complicit in justifying rambunctious campaigning. This nefarious tradition in the name of democracy needs to be outlawed.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
