The directive of the Election Commission of India to the BJP and the Congress to desist from campaigning along caste, community, language and religious lines during the ongoing Lok Sabha election reflects a delayed but welcome response on the part of the poll body. This, coupled with its censure of Abhijit Gangopadhyay, the BJP candidate for Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal, for his “low-level personal attack” on chief minister Mamata Banerjee, comes as a strong reminder to political parties and candidates that they must behave.In its missive to the two key players, the BJP and the Congress, the EC has rightly pointed out that India’s socio-cultural milieu cannot be made a casualty to elections.
In its directive that has come almost a month after complaints were registered with it, the EC rightly rejected BJP president J.P. Nadda’s excuses and directed him and his party's star campaigners, who include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to cease campaigning on religious and communal lines.
The BKP must stop campaign speeches that may divide society, the poll body has demanded. In a show of even-handedness, the EC also directed the Congress not to politicise the defence forces and make potentially divisive statements regarding the socio-economic demographics of the armed forces. In its censure note to the utterances of Gangopadhyay who was until recently a judge of the Calcutta high court, the EC mentioned how they “brought disrepute and damage to the state of .