Don’t Expose Corruption,Terrorism – EC says to BJP!

EC orders deletion of parts from BJP poll film

VR Jayaraj | Thiruvananthapuram- Daily Pioneer

The
entire Kerala is discussing issues like the multi-crore SNC Lavalin
corruption by CPI(M)’s State chief and the terror strike in Mumbai, but
the State Election Commission seems to think that the BJP has no right
to hold campaigns over such matters.

The Kerala BJP on Friday
lodged a complaint with the Central Election Commission against its
State officials’ order to delete certain scenes and voices from its
short campaign film speaking about the collapse of India’s security
system as evidenced by the Mumbai terror strike and the terror links of
PDP chairman Abdul Nasser Madani.

Senior BJP leader MS Kumar
told The Pioneer that the State Election Commission was acting in a
bias manner against his party. “This is obviously part of either the
mysterious intentions of the State Election Commission or a hidden
agenda of the politicians who are controlling them,” he said. “The
politics of election commission is very clear from this and this is a
move against the BJP,” he said.

The commission had asked the BJP
to delete seven references and scenes from the 14-minute film produced
by K Suresh Kumar, well-known film producer and chairman of BJP’s
cultural forum. “We can’t understand why these scenes and references
should irk the commission officials when the whole State is discussing
these issues,” Kumar said.

He said that the commission seemed to
be worried about references like ‘the SNC Lavalin corruption to the
tune of several crores’, ‘AP Abdullakkutty who was kicked out of the
CPI(M)’, ‘Abdul Nasser Madani, who has terror links’, and others. The
censoring panel of the commission had first objected to the scenes and
references and then the commission panel headed by the State Election
Commissioner itself reviewed the short film and ordered the deletions.

The
film, produced for screening in the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies as part
of BJP candidates’ campaign, features most important social issues
Kerala is currently discussing. These issues are presented in the film
through characters enacted by well-known cinema and television stars.

The
party has deleted these portions “as a matter of honouring the
Constitutional authority of the commission” but filed a petition with
the Central Election Commission against the ‘biased’ move of the State
election officials.

Kumar said the objections of the commission
to matters like collapse of the country’s security as seen in the
Mumbai terror attack were illogical. The party is planning to hold
meetings in all districts of the State to explain the bias the
commission is showing towards BJP.

BJP leaders said some
officials of the State Election Commission were acting under the orders
of CPI(M) and Congress leaders and this was why they ordered deletion
of references in the film which could pain these parties. They said
issues like the Mumbai terror attack were of national concern but the
parochial minds of the Congress leaders and certain officials were
seeing them as their personal problems.

They asked how issues
like the multi-crore corruption in the SNC Lavalin deal and Madani’s
terror links, which were being discussed at length in all the Press
conferences and speeches by Congress leaders, became forbidden when BJP
took them up in a campaign movie.

CPI(M) State secretary is
one of the key accused in the Rs 374-crore corruption-ridden deal with
SNC Lavalin. AP Abdullakkutty, sitting MP of the CPI(M) in Kannur, was
expelled from the party for praising Narendra Modi’s development model.
Madani, whose name was now coming up in several terror-linked cases,
was presently an electoral ally of the CPI(M).

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