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The Congress party has approached the Election Commission seeking "exemplary punishment" for Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks on a land deal involving Robert Vadra and DLF in Haryana.
In a petition to the Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath, the party alleged that the prime minister "openly" flouted its model code of conduct by "deliberately maligning and defaming" the Haryana government and making "malicious and scandalous personal attacks" on the central leadership of the Congress on October 6 at a rally in Hisar.
The Congress on Thursday demanded an "apology" from Modi after the EC on Wednesday ruled that there was no violation of model code of conduct by the Haryana government in clearing the land deal involving Sonia Gandhi's son-in law Vadra.
Addressing a public rally on Monday, Modi had asked EC to take serious note of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda clearing the land deal between Vadra and DLF alleging it was done hastily as the incumbent Congress faced "certain defeat" in the October 15 state assembly polls.
Secretary of the Congress’ legal department K C Mittal said that as per the code, parties and candidates need to refrain from criticism of all aspects of private life not connected with the public activities of the leaders or workers of other parties or have to avoid criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion.
He claimed that the statement made by Modi is “only a distortion to malign the government and Congress party publicly to prejudice the interest of Congress candidates and seek votes for BJP candidates.”
Maintaining that such criticism, based on "unverified allegations", is not permissible under the MCC, the party said in the complaint that the statement "is not only derogatory, malicious and scandalous on the face of it, but, such conduct in public discourse needs to be penalised adequately for the purity of electoral process and fair conduct of polls."
The party alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party’s modus operandi was to mislead people and that Modi took all possible liberties during the public address to focus on personal attack to defame the Congress party.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh challenged the BJP to approach the court "without any hesitation" on Friday. Singh said that Vadra's name was raked up only during the polls to defame the clean image of Nehru-Gandhi family.
Addressing a news conference in Chandigarh, Singh said, "What law has Robert Vadra violated? If there is any violation then the BJP should approach the court. Whenever election comes, the Vadra issue suddenly emerges.”
"Why should anyone be denied from engaging in legitimate business simply because they are related to a political family?" he asked.
He was asked to respond to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's statement, who had on Thursday charged the Hooda government with not presenting full facts of the case before the Election Commission.