New Delhi: The Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections (IPMIE), a civil society organisation, has raised concerns over political leaders across parties resorting to hate speech to seek votes, the continued spread of misinformation, suppression of voter choice in Indore and Surat due to unopposed elections, and prevention of civil society members from interacting with foreign election observers.
The panel has been sending weekly bulletins to the poll body to bring to its notice emerging issues from the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The panel comprises Professor Neera Chandhoke (National Fellow at Indian Council of Social Science Research, and retired professor, Delhi University), Dr. Thomas Daffern (philosopher and historian, chairman of World Intellectuals Wisdom Forum, Director, International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (France and UK); Convenor, Commonwealth Interfaith Network), Sakhawat Hossain (former Election Commissioner of Bangladesh), Dr. Harish Karnick (former Professor, IIT, Kanpur), Dr. Sebastian Morris (former Professor, IIM, Ahmedabad), Professor Rahul Mukherji (Professor and Chair, Modern Politics of South Asia, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany).
Below is the group’s seventh such bulletin, shared with the poll body in the hope that the issues it raises are addressed:
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Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections – 2024
https://indiaelectionmonitor.org/
Weekly Bulletin of Key Concerns. No. 7, 2-8 May, 2024
This is the seventh of our weekly catalogue of concerns about the integrity of the 2024 general election
(GE). As the Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections, 2024, we have been observing the
2024 GE process and publishing our findings, periodically. The bulletin is meant to raise emergent
concerns, directly with the Election Commission of India (ECI), in the hope that these are addressed
speedily, also as a record of our concerns.
1. Continued appeals to religious polarisation for the purpose of seeking votes
The concerning trend of politicians resorting to religious appeals to seek votes continues unabated, in violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The Election Commission of India (ECI) has failed to ensure this does not happen and that the MCC is upheld.
● Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly made multiple communal remarks in his election speeches, targeting the entire Muslim community, and continues to use anti-Muslim dog-whistle frequently in his campaign speeches, including mention of Pakistan, and false allegations that the Congress plans to take reservations from the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and give it to Muslims. In a speech, he further asked to voters to decide between “Ram Rajya” and “vote jihad”. Despite multiple complaints lodged with the Election Commission of India (ECI) against PM Modi’s hate speeches, there is no news of ECI having acted against him per rules under Representation of People’s (RPA) Act and the Model Code Conduct (MCC).
● Karnataka BJP’s official social media account posted a video demonising Muslims, triggering several
complaints being lodged with the ECI, by opposition parties, among others. Rather than acting against the BJP, under RPA Act and MCC, ECI has written to X to take down the anti-Muslim video, but only after voting had concluded in Karnataka.
● BJP Member of Parliament (MP) Arvind Dharmapuri shared a hateful video on his X account, which
vilified Muslims and repeated the allegation that the Congress plans to take existing reservations away and give it to Muslims.
● BJP MP Navneet Rana raised religious slogans in an election rally, saying those who wanted to live in India must say “Jai Shri Ram” and the others could go to Pakistan, and asked for votes in the name of Lord Ram.
● Maria Alam of the Samajwadi Party in an election speech in Uttar Pradesh called on Muslims to remove the current government by “vote jihad”.
2. Spreading of misinformation in election campaigning
● PM Modi, in addition to repeatedly alleging that the Congress wants to give reservations on purely religious basis, has also stated multiple times that the Congress wants to impose a 55% inheritance tax if voted to power, whereas nothing of the sort has been mentioned in the opposition’s manifesto or speeches.
● A doctored video of Home Minister Amit Shah claiming that the BJP government will end reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs if voted to power was shared on social media. A case was filed against Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, whose lawyer has denied the charge that Reddy shared this video.
3. Suppression of voter choice
● Following reports from Surat and Indore where opposition candidates were either rejected or withdrew, opposition candidates from Gandhinagar – where Amit Shah is contesting from the BJP – have alleged intimidation and pressure to withdraw by local BJP politicians and the state police. Similar pressure has been reported from Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Such pressures by the ruling party, if true, undermine the very act of democratic elections.
● Media reports have shown that names of around 700 fishermen, mostly Muslims, whose homes in Gandhvi and Navadra villages of Gujarat were demolished last year, have been removed from the voter list, thereby disenfranchising them.
4. Questions over the release of voter turnout data by the ECI
As highlighted in our previous report, the ECI made an excessive delay in releasing the voter turnout data for the first two phases of voting. Opposition leaders, a former Chief Election Commissioner, and civil society continue to raise questions about this delay and the fact that data related to number of votes polled per constituency has not been released. The ECI has not responded to these accusations. This casts aspersions over the transparency of the electoral process, which is essential for a free and fair election.
5. Civil society prevented from interacting with foreign election observers
The panel also takes serious note of reports of election authorities not allowing civil society groups to interact with members of foreign election management bodies / political parties that seem to be observing general election 2024. There have been news circulating for sometime, of the BJP inviting political parties from overseas to observe Lok Sabha elections. The ECI in its press note of 7 May 2024 reported “during phase 3, 75 international delegates from 23 countries visited many polling stations in 6 states to witness the poll process”, going on to claim that the observers “commend(ed) India’s electoral processes”. It is not clear if the delegates that the ECI was reporting on were the same as those that the BJP had invited. If so, this itself is problematic. What is further concerning is that domestic election monitoring groups who tried to meet with the foreign observers, to share their insights, were reportedly prevented from doing so. This does not bode well for transparency and electoral integrity.
