Strengthen Model Code to Curb 'Politicisation' of Armed Forces: Lokesh Batra to ECI
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Indian Navy veteran and transparency campaigner Commodore Lokesh Batra on Sunday, March 3, urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to issue statutory clauses in the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in order to ensure that "politicisation of armed forces" by political parties doesn't take place.
In his open letter, addressed to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, Batra referred to the advisory issued by the ECI on March 9, 2019 asking "political parties/candidates to desist, as part of their election campaigning, from indulging in any kind of political propaganda involving activities of the Indian Armed Forces.”
Speaking on the necessity to codify the 2019 advisory, Batra told The Telegraph that it would enable the poll panel to punish violations effectively.
The 76-year-old war veteran's relentless pursuit through the Right to Information (RTI) Act has exposed the opacity surrounding political funding. His scrutiny work on the electoral bond scheme, despite facing threats and intimidation, led to over 80 RTI requests and a major expose in 2019, revealing the scheme’s flaws and the lack of accountability in political funding, which finally resulted in the Supreme Court banning the electoral bonds in February 2024.
As per The Telegraph report, a day before the Lok Sabha elections were declared in 2019, the poll panel had iterated its 2013 advisory against the use of photos of “defence personnel by political parties” for “election propaganda” after former naval chief Admiral L. Ramdas complained about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) posters that featured an image of Wing Commander V. Abhinandan, who was released by Pakistan after his fighter jet was shot down over its airspace.
As per The Telegraph, on March 19, 2019 the ECI had issued another advisory extending to social media against any electioneering about the armed forces.
Further, in its report, The Telegraph underlined the repeated instances of violation of the advisory by BJP leaders.
For instance, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath was issued a notice for using the term "Modi ji ki sena" in a speech in Ghaziabad on March 31, 2019 in an apparent reference to cross-border strikes by Indian armed forces.
On April 9, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Latur: “My first-time voters, can you dedicate your first vote to the valiant soldiers who carried out the air strike in Pakistan’s Balakot?”
Again, on April 25, 2019 the prime minister repeated the Balakot pitch in Varanasi. On April 21, Modi said in Barmer: “Have we kept it (the nuclear button) for Diwali?” The same day, he said in Patan: “Pakistan announced the return of the pilot… else it was going to be a qatal ki raat.”
As per the report, Batra had also complained against a BJP hoarding in Mumbai with the prime minister’s image with the caption, “Entered the home of the enemy and attacked the terrorists.”
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Notably, the ECI didn't find any of these violative of the election code. However, former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa had registered dissent notes to these clean chits. He joined the Asian Development Bank after leaving the ECI later, as per the report.
The ECI was criticised for not acting on the prime minister's alleged violation of the model code.
“My (open) letter (to the CEC) is to prevent such situations once the MCC is in place for the forthcoming elections,” Batra told The Telegraph.
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