Lok Sabha 2024 polls: Sitaram Yechury writes to Election Commission over Anurag Thakur’s speech

CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury wrote a letter to the Election Commission on Sunday against Union Minister and BJP leader Anurag Thakur for inciting hatred against a community.
Talking to X Yechury, he urged the Election Commission to take action against Anurag Thakur, Otherwise, he says people will lose all faith in the Election Commission’s ability to conduct free and fair elections.
“Before people lose all faith in this Election Commission’s ability to conduct a ‘free and fair’ poll the ECI must act. Earlier, ECI had disenfranchised those who gave such incendiary communal speeches,” he said.
“Following the footsteps of his leader, Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Member of Parliament and star campaigner of the BJP, Anurag Thakur, is now repeating the same lies that Narendra Modi had made at a meeting in Rajasthan on April 21,” Yechury said in his letter to the ECI.
“In the link give below, Thakur has, with total disregard to the Representation of People Act and throwing provisions of the Model Code of Conduct to the winds, resorted to evoke communal passions and vitiate the poll atmosphere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypk87jGkBIY,” he said.
Yechury said that “More and more leaders of the BJP are now taking resort to inciting hatred against the Muslim community, using anti-Muslim tropes in their bid to create a false impression that their lives and wealth are threatened.”
“It is regrettable that the ECI has refused to take suo moto cognisance of such violations, despite them being prominently reported by the media. It is only after a flurry of complaints, that the ECI, found it prudent to send a notice to the BJP President. Even here, the ECI has instead of saying that it is acting on its own, has relied on the complaints received from political parties and civil society groups/individuals. Moreover, it has, for reasons best known to it, refrained from sending notice to the Narendra Modi who has been accused by the complainants,” he said.
“We urge the Election Commission of India to immediately issue notices to both Anurag Thakur as also the BJP President for the vituperative speech that Thakur made, while speaking at a public meeting. Also action should be taken without delay to see that such violations are strictly dealt with as per the provisions of the Representation of People Act. We need not reiterate that unless it immediately acts firmly and decisively, people’s faith in the Election Commission as also the entire process will stand undermined,” Yechury said