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Monday, Dec 24, 2007
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Double standards, says Modi

New Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Election Commission of adopting “double standards” for advising him to be more cautious in future while sparing Congress president Sonia Gandhi from any such advice for her maut ke saudagar (merchants of death) utterances.

“One decision for the son of Gujarat and son of Hindustan and another for the foreigner daughter,” Mr. Modi said in his reaction to the Commission’s ruling on replies given by him and Ms. Gandhi on their controversial remarks made in the run-up to the Gujarat Assembly elections.

The Commission on Saturday held that Mr. Modi and Ms. Gandhi violated the model code of conduct by their remarks.

While commenting on Mr. Modi’s election speech regarding the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter, the Commission asked him to be “more cautious in future” but did not give such advice to Ms. Gandhi.

However, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami said there was a need for making a “distinction” between the Congress president and the Gujarat Chief Minister in the observations on their violation of code of conduct. “We felt there should be a difference. Can’t go into the details of the discussions but we felt there was a need for a slight distinction.” — PTI

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