Poll panel told to work out ways to reduce the number of phases in elections to shorten the period of the model code.
New Delhi: A group of former chief election commissioners Monday said that hate speeches used during election campaigns vitiate the political atmosphere.
“There is an urgent need to control such speeches in larger public interest,” said a press release issued by the Election Commission, which organised a round-table of the former CECs.
It’s not just the Election Commission, which has expressed concerns over this menace. Even the Supreme Court has also intervened in the matter in the past.
In April last year, the top court had referred an issue to a five-judge constitution bench, seeking to know whether the freedom of speech includes “the right to insult another person’s right to dignity”.
The matter came up during a hearing in a case wherein Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan had termed the gang rape of a mother-daughter duo in Bulandshahr as a “political conspiracy”. By dismissing this brutal crime, Khan in effect called the mother and her 14-year-old daughter as “liars”.
Though he eventually apologised in court for his comments, amicus curiae Fali Nariman had said that he was not interested in the lawmaker alone, but the issue on the whole.
Nariman had stressed the need for a law along the lines of 1964 Civil Rights Act in the United States. He also suggested that there must be a redressal system to protect the violation of fundamental rights of citizens by any individual or a corporate entity.
Call for a shorter duration of polls
The former CECs also suggested that poll panel should work out ways to reduce the number of phases in elections to shorten the period of the model code.
Monday’s consultation was held even as the Modi government was pushing for the idea of simultaneous elections across the country.
Those attended the round-table included former CECs M.S. Gill, J.M. Lyngdoh, T.S. Krishna Murthy, B.B. Tandon, S.Y.Quraishi, V.S. Sampath, H.R. Brahma, Dr Nasim Zaidi and former election commissioner G.V.G. Krishnamurty.