Lok Sabha 2019: BJP leader Mahdev Sarkar barred from addressing public for model code violation

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE Election Commission of India (EC) today barred Mahdev Sarkar, District President of BJP, Nadia from holding public meetings, public processions, public rallies, road shows and interviews and public utterances in the media (electronic, print, social media etc) for 48 hours in connection with the ongoing elections, for violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by making sexually coloured remarks against the Trinamool Congress' Lok Sabha candidate, Mahua Moitra.

The EC has also reprimanded Mahdev Sarkar for his misconduct.

A  Supreme Court bench, comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had yesterday directed the EC to pass necessary and appropriate orders on Moitra's petition accusing Sarkar and the BJP candidate for the Krishnanagar parliamentary constituency, Kalyan Choubey, of making sexually coloured remarks against her during the poll campaign.

It is in this backdrop that the EC acted on the complaint filed by Moitra against the two BJP leaders.

According to Moitra, on April 22, 2019, during a BJP election rally at  Krishnanagar, Sarkar in his speech delivered before a large audience, made highly offensive and sexually coloured remarks against her with the intention to insult her modesty and to affect her standing with the public in Krishnanagar. In summary, Sarkar is alleged to have said:

• that the ornament and garb of an Indian woman is her 'shame', and that the petitioner does not have any;
• that the petitioner is a woman but has forgotten Indian culture;
• that the petitioner's videos are going viral, and that the Petitioner drinks coloured water every night, and that Indian women will not forgive this;
• that Sita, Savitri, Damayanti and Bishnupriya and the women of this land are saluted by the entire world, but the petitioner has insulted all Indian women by her actions, by not following their tradition.

Moitra had, therefore, submitted before the apex court that by making these statements on a public platform while campaigning for and in the presence of the BJP Lok Sabha candidate Kalyan Choubey, Sarkar had sought to demean the petitioner on the basis of her gender and bring her character into disrepute among the general public, all for electoral gains. His actions, she said,  had not only insulted her modesty and intruded upon her privacy, thereby causing her immense distress and mental agony, but it had also amounted to sexual harassment as defined under the law.

In addition, the petitioner had told the court that the statements by the BJP leaders had also amounted to a serious breach of the EC's Model Code of Conduct and a corrupt practice under the Representation of Peoples Act within the Krishnanagar parliamentary constituency.

Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Indira Jaising submitted that less than 48 hours were left for campaigning in the constituency in question and urgent orders were required, directing the Election Commission of India to forthwith take necessary steps in the matter.

The Supreme Court then proceeded to pass the order to the effect "Having regard to the limited prayer made and the time available, we direct the competent authority in the Election Commission of India to pass necessary orders forthwith upon production of a certified copy of this order".

Before approaching the Supreme Court, the petitioner had also approached the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) West Bengal and Election Commission of India but to no avail.

Read Also: SC directs ECI to pass necessary and appropriate orders on TMC candidate Mahua Moitra's plaint against sexist remarks by BJP leaders