EC will continue to issue advisories if hate speeches are made

Notwithstanding objection raised by BJP over Election Commission's advisory to it on Varun Gandhi's hate speech, the electoral body has made it clear that it will continue to take such action in similar cases.

Notwithstanding objection raised by BJP over Election Commission's advisory to it on Varun Gandhi's hate speech, the electoral body has made it clear that it will continue to take such action in similar cases.

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Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, while expressing satisfaction over the conduct of Lok Sabha elections, gave nine out of 10 to the EC for the massive electoral exercise.

On the issue of Varun's hate speech, he replied in the affirmative when asked whether the EC would issue advisories again if such a situation arose.

BJP had objected to issuance of the advisory, saying the EC had not powers to do so.

"The media attention has been too much on this issue. The hate speech we encountered, we issue notices in the same way (in such cases). There were other cases and we did exactly the same thing," Quraishi told Karan Thapar's 'India Tonight' programme on CNBC.

Noting that the EC has "no power to disqualify a candidate", he said "we gave an advice to BJP that since they said they are distancing themselves from it, our advice is why don't you prove it."