EC bans Amit Shah, Azam Khan rallies in UP after their hate speeches

The Election Commission on Friday banned BJP leader Amit Shah and SP's Azam Khan from holding public meetings or roadshows in Uttar Pradesh. It also asked state authorities to lodge FIRs against them for making hate speeches.

Updated on: Apr 12, 2014, 09:41:51 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Election Commission (EC) on Friday banned BJP leader Amit Shah and Samajwadi Party's Azam Khan from holding public meetings, processions or road shows in communally sensitive Uttar Pradesh. It also asked the state authorities to lodge FIRs and initiate criminal proceedings against them for making hate speeches.

BJP-leader-Amit-Shah-addresses-a-press-conference-in-Varanasi-PTI-Photo

The stern action was taken by the EC at a top-level meeting where the poll body exercised its constitutional powers to prevent the two leaders from further vitiating the poll atmosphere.

Along with the ban, the EC also asked its officers to book leaders for indulging in hate speeches or raking up personal life of leaders not related to public activities. The direction came on the day Congress raised the issue of BJP's PM pick Narendra Modi not declaring that he was married in earlier affidavits.

Using the powers given to it under Article 324 of the Constitution, the EC directed the state administration to register cases against Khan and Shah. The EC's secretary RK Srivastava has instructed the UP chief secretary to submit a compliance report by 5 pm on April 12.

The state will have to lodge cases against Khan in Ghaziabad and Rampur for hate speeches. His arrest would depend on judicial intervention. Meanwhile, the police will have to arrest Shah if he fails to get bail from the court. A case for hate speech can result in a jail term of three to five years.

Read: HC dismisses Amit Shah’s plea on FIRs

This summer's poll has seen leaders of parties indulging in hate speech to polarise votes, especially in riot-hit Muzzafarnagar, which witnessed highest polling in the last three decades.

On April 3 in Shamli, Shah had asked voters to seek "revenge" through ballot for the riots. A remark, which the EC had termed "malicious" and "intentional". On April 9 in Sambhal, Khan repeatedly described Modi and his aide Amit Shah as 'murderers'.

They were allowed to spread hate, the EC observed while tearing into the Akhilesh Yadav-led UP government for its inaction.

"No case seems to have been filed against Khan so far and the commission is of the view that the state government is soft pedaling in taking required action against him so that his undesirable activities could have been properly and effectively checked," the EC instruction to the UP chief secretary said.

The panel also observed that Shah had not been arrested despite being booked for hate speech.

Reacting to the order, the SP said it will request the EC to reconsider its "unjustified" decision. "Khan is a seasoned political leader, whose statements have been misinterpreted and blown out of proportions. The EC decision is uncalled for", SP national secretary Rajesh Dixit said. The BJP is expected to seek a review as well.

Read: BJP brass rallies behind Shah, sees nothing wrong with speech
Read: Told crowd to avenge injustice by casting ballots, didn't speak of revenge, says Amit Shah

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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