EC bans advertising of 7 guarantees by Congress in Rajasthan
Jaipur, Nov 22: The Election Commission in Rajasthan has banned the advertisement of the seven guarantees issued by the Congress for which the party workers are contacting the public and informing them about their seven guarantees through voice calls and advertising to get the people registered.
The state election commission has considered it as a violation of the election code of conduct. Along with this, the commission in its notice has mentioned about releasing the advertisement without getting it approved by the state level Advertisement Certification Committee.
The Election Commission of India in a directive dated 24 March 2014 directed all political parties and candidates that any advertisement, which is proposed to be broadcast on the electronic media, is required to undergo prior authentication. But now voters are being wooed through these messages without following those instructions.
“This is not permissible under the Model Code of Conduct and thus broadcasting audio messages as political advertisements without getting authentication is in clear violation of the Election Commission of India guidelines. You are ordered to stop the broadcast of both the above audio messages with immediate effect and explain the reasons why you violated the provisions of the Model Code of Conduct by broadcasting the above advertisement message without authentication,” said the notice.
In fact, for the last few days, people in the state have been continuously receiving recorded calls from mobile numbers. One amongst these calls has the voice of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and information is being given about the 7 guarantees of the Congress and people are being asked to register to avail their benefits. This registration is done during the call only.
Recently, a complaint was lodged by the BJP regarding this advertisement. After the complaint, when the Election Commission got it investigated, it came to light that this advertisement had not been approved by the Advertisement Certification Committee formed by the election panel.
According to the rules, if any political party or candidate releases its advertisement in the media for campaigning, it has to be approved by the Advertisement Certification Committee.
The BJP Election Management Committee Convener Narayan Panchariya said that in view of their certain defeat and weak position in the assembly elections, Congress leaders in the state have once again prepared a new deceptive plan in front of the public. The Congress is issuing advertisements in newspapers and TV as well as the digital medium and misleading the people. In view of this, recently the Election Commission has issued orders to ban the misleading audio messages of the Congress.
Panchariya said that the notice says that it has come to the notice of the State Level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee that the Congress has not obtained a broadcast certificate from the certification committee for recorded messages related to its election campaign.
It has already been clarified in the directives of the Election Commission of India that any advertisement, which is proposed to be broadcast in the electronic media, requires prior authentication. Even after this, the Congress party is ignoring these instructions and trying to mislead the voters through these messages. This is not permissible under the Model Code of Conduct and broadcasting audio messages in the form of advertisements without obtaining such authentication is a clear violation of the guidelines of the Election Commission of India.