BJP's prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during a rally in Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh
Congress today moved the Election Commission over
Narendra Modi's controversial "khooni panja" barb at the party during a rally in Chhattisgarh, seeking "stern action" against the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
Slamming Mr Modi for his alleged "intemperate, malicious and defamatory" remarks, Congress, in its communication to Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath, said that by describing the hand symbol of the party as "khooni panja (bloody palm)" and "zaalim hath (cruel hand)", the Gujarat Chief Minister was using derogatory language even for the poll panel, since it had reference to the symbol allotted by the latter.
"The use of the expression khooni panja is extremely significant and deplorable and has an effect of terrorizing the public at large against Congress," the party said.
The party also sent a DVD of Mr Modi's speech at Dongargarh in Chhattisgarh on Thursday where he had made the remarks, as well as clippings of a newspaper report.
"The tone, tenor and language used by him (Modi) apparently shows that he has intentionally and deliberately used abusive words and remarks. The code permits criticism of other political parties confining to their policies and programme, their past record of work, but the statement made by him is not a criticism as contemplated under this clause but he is using intemperate language which is also malicious and defamatory.
"He even goes on to criticize the Congress party based on unverified allegations, rather deliberately he has distorted the facts to mislead and misrepresent to the public at large.
"Since this programme was also televised by the electronic media, these statements made by him were also shown in different parts of the country," said KC Mittal, Secretary of Congress's legal department.
The party's complaint to the Election Commission comes days after the BJP had complained to the poll watchdog against Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's "ISI" remarks over the victims of the communal violence in UP's Muzaffarnagar which had sparked a huge political controversy.
The Congress today also sent the text of Mr Modi's speech in the Chhattisgarh rally, in which he had made the remarks, to the poll panel.
The party said the manner in which Mr Modi first referred to Congress's election symbol, hand, and said it would lead to the destruction of Chhattisgarh and later referred to "khooni panja" was calculated to depict the party and its symbol "in the worst possible light and caused the people to develop a fear against the party".
It said since Mr Modi was representing the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP, the opposition party was also "equally guilty" for the violation of the model code of conduct and requested the poll panel to "take stern action" against the two.
Earlier, the BJP, in its complaint to the Commission, had protested against Mr Gandhi's claim that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI was in touch with some of the victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots. The complaint resulted in the poll panel issuing a notice to Mr Gandhi, who in his reply, maintained that he did not violate the model code of conduct.
The Congress is also learnt to have taken strong exception to another remark by Mr Modi, at a rally in Bahraich in UP, in which he said, "I feel that in the next elections, it would not be the trio of Samajwadi Party, BSP and Congress which would be in the election fray. I feel that in the next elections, CBI and Indian Mujahideen... they would take care of the elections so as to save the fortress of Congress."
The party could approach the Election Commission on this issue as well.