Karnataka - Bangalore   

BJP upset over censoring of TV commercial

BANGALORE: The Election Commission’s action of deleting a reference made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in a television commercial, to the United Progressive Alliance and the Congress leaders , holding them responsible for price rise, has angered the BJP. It has decided to challenge the legality of such an action at an appropriate forum.

The party has already shot off a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner expressing its displeasure over such an act. In the letter, signed by BJP national general secretary Arun Jaitley, the party has alleged that the action violates Article 19 (1a) of the Constitution that pertains to freedom of speech.

At a press conference, Mr. Jaitley said that no code of conduct could override basic constitutional guarantees such as freedom of speech.

The BJP leaders played both the uncensored and censored versions of the 70-second TV commercial before the media, ensuring that the censored portions are now in the public domain and will be aired electronically and in news reports. The 70-second commercial has a speech by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj in which she says the price rise has made life difficult for the people. “Such is the impact of price rise that the arrival of festivals scare people,” she says, and accuses the Centre and Congress leaders of being in “deep slumber while common man is suffering”.

The Election Commission has deleted the words “Centre” and “Congress leaders” from this line. But it has retained a line in which she calls upon people to defeat the Congress in the coming elections.

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