Lok Sabha elections 2019: Election Commission bans Congress’s ‘chowkidar’ ad as BJP raises objection

The term “Chowkidar Chor Hai” was popularised by Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the context of the Rafale jet fighter deal, which, he says, was rewritten to favour Reliance Defence’s Anil Ambani.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday banned the Congress’s “Chowkidar Chor Hai” advertisement, according to a letter issued on Wednesday by Madhya Pradesh’s joint chief electoral officer Rajesh Kaul.

The Congress said the ad had been originally cleared by the committee. (HT Photo)

Kaul confirmed that the ban, which means the ad cannot be carried on any media, be it print, electronic or social media, is applicable across India

Kaul told HT that the ban was in response to an appeal from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Shantilal Lodha, who contended that the wording of the ad was disrespectful to the Prime Minister. ECI’s Media Certification and Monitoring Committee for Madhya Pradesh concurred.

“We found the ad violating morality and decency codes as it is disrespectful to the office of the Prime Minister,” said Kaul.

The Congress said the ad had been originally cleared by the committee.

Congress media cell in-charge Shobha Oza said the party had already appealed. “How can the committee, with whose permission we were running the campaign, cancel it now? Also we never named anyone as ‘chowkidar’; it is only the BJP which is claiming that Prime Minister Modi is a ‘chowkidar’.” She added that by banning the ad, the MP chief electoral officer’s office seems to be suggesting the identity of the chowkidar.

The term “Chowkidar Chor Hai” was popularised by Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the context of the Rafale jet fighter deal, which, he says, was rewritten to favour Reliance Defence’s Anil Ambani. It was a play on Modi’s comment, before the 2014 general election, that he was a watchman (chowkidar) who would not countenance any corruption under his watch. Both the government and Reliance Defence have denied any wrongdoing in the Rafale deal.

In response to the Congress’s campaign, the BJP launched a counter campaign, “Main Bhi Chowkidar” (I am a watchman too), and several leaders of the party, including the Prime Minister, Union ministers, and the party president prefixed “chowkidar” to their Twitter display names.

Responding to a question on the extent of the ban, posed at a press briefing by the Chief Election Commissioner in New Delhi, the commission’s representatives didn’t provide a direct answer but said that if an ad had been cleared by the media certification committee of a state then it means it can be used across India -- implying that the reverse held true too.

The state’s media certification committee is headed by chief electoral officer V L Kantha Rao.

Kaul added that the ad was in violation of the Cable Television (Regulation) Act 1995, a 2004 judgment of the high court of Andhra Pradesh in a case pitting Gemini TV and the Election Commission of India, as well as a 2004 Supreme Court order in a case between the ministry of information and broadcasting and Gemini TV.

The Supreme Court order said that a cable operator or TV channel should not telecast any ad which “does not conform to the law of the country and which offends the morality, decency and susceptibility of views or which is shocking, disgusting and revolting”.

The order held that a code spelling out whether such advertisements are in conformity with the law will be laid down by the poll body. The EC’s Compendium of Instructions On Model Code of Conduct, issued before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, laid down these rules subsequently.