Modi-baiting: CEC raps Kerala CM

The Central election Commission has shot off a letter to Kerala Chief Minister and senior CPI(M) Polit Bureau member VS Achuthanandan criticizing him in the name of certain derogatory statements he had made against senior BJP leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The letter, written earlier this week, told Achuthanandan that he should have avoided making that statement when the model code of election conduct was in force. Achuthanandan had made the controversial statement at an election meeting in the Muslim-majority Ponnani constituency in Kerala earlier this month.

Achuthanandan, in line with the CPI(M) strategy of attacking the BJP for appeasing the Muslim voters, had held Modi responsible for the killing of people of the minority community in Gujarat in 2002. The Election Commission said the Chief Minister should have avoided making this comment.

The Election Commission’s purpose by writing the letter was simply to bring the matter into Achuthanandan’s attention. He need not give a reply for the letter but he could write back to explain his position. There would be no follow-up actions also. The subject was brought to the notice of the Central Election Commission by an election observer in Kerala.

At an election meeting in Ponnani on April 7, Achuthanandan had said, “Modi was finding happiness in the butchering of thousands of Muslim brothers, women including pregnant mothers and children. India had voted against that anti-minority programme of the BJP in 2004.”

BJP leaders in Kerala welcomed the action of the Election Commission but said that Achuthanandan was not the only politician who had been indulged in making such derogatory remarks against their party leaders.

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