New Delhi: The Election Commission’s snap order on Wednesday night suspending an IAS officer on poll duty for checking the helicopter of Prime Minister Modi in Odisha the previous day evoked outrage on the social media. Senior Congress leader and AICC treasurer Ahmed Patel was the first to fire the salvo on Twitter: “The question is simple.
If SPG protectees of the Congress party can be subjected to inspection, why is the same not applicable to the BJP?” In another tweet, he said: “There have been instances where during polls EC was allowed to check convoys of both current & the former Congress President.”
“SPG protectees can’t be frisked personally” but “why suspend an officer for checking the PM’s chopper,” he asked, pointing out that Mohammed Mohsin, a 1996 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer, had not frisked Modi to invite the EC’s wrath. “What message is being sent? Law is special for some,” Patel further asked in the tweet.
In its official Twitter post, the Congress wondered: “What is Modi carrying in the helicopter that he doesn’t want India to see?” The party stressed that the Election Commission’s rules do not exempt the PM’s vehicle from being searched. It said the rule cited by the EC for the drastic action merely bans the use of official vehicles for campaigning except in the case of the PM and others for the security reasons. “The rule, however, does not exempt PM’s vehicle from being searched,” the Congress asserted.
Its nagging question was: “What is Modi carrying in the helicopter that he doesn’t want India to see?” AAP tweeted: “The chowkidar lives in his own protected shell! Is the chowkidar trying to hide something?” NDTV news channel carried out a fact check on its own, accessing both the instructions cited in the suspension order and reported that “there is no mention of exceptions for the vehicles of the Prime Minister or other SPG protectees.”
The EC’s order accuses the IAS officer of not “acting in conformity” with instructions on SPG protectees. Not only PM Modi, but even Sonia Gandhi, as also Congress President Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her children are SPG protectees.
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No rule, however, could be traced that exempts anyone from such checks during elections, a position that the Congress flagged in tweets condemning the move. The Election Commission’s March 22 instructions find an echo in an earlier order dated April 10, 2014, which says that there shall be a total and absolute ban on the use of official vehicles for campaigning, electioneering or election-related travel.
The EC directions cites certain exceptions, such as the SPG protectees like “Prime Minister and other political personalities, who might, in view of extremist and terrorist activities and threat to their lives, require security of a high order and whose security requirements are governed by any statutory provisions made by Parliament or the State Legislature.”
The Election Commission, however, adds a caveat that “….if it has any reason to doubt that the assessment of security requirements made by authorities under the SPG Act or any other special instruction …have been manifestly or unduly excessive with the intention of promoting indirectly the electoral interests of a particular party or candidate, the commission will bring the matter to the notice of the concerned Government for immediate and appropriate corrective steps.”
