Giving ?detailed reasons? to the Election Commission, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday rejected the contention that she had violated the model code of conduct with her ?merchant of death? remarks during the campaigning for the Gujarat Assembly polls.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi filed the reply on behalf of Gandhi, but refused to reveal the contents. ?We are certainly not sharing it with the press? he said. ?…detailed reasons have been given to demonstrate that there is absolutely no question of violation of the model code of conduct,? Singhvi maintained.
Over the last three days, the Congress embarrassed itself with flip-flops on the issue. The party first said Gandhi had uttered the comments with Gujarat chief minister in mind.
However, a day later, a senior minister in the government called a press conference to refute the contention, maintaining that Gandhi never took any names. On Monday, another spokesperson said the remarks were directed at the state administration and Modi, being the head of the state, could not escape the charges.
The party has been dismissing as ?outragerous? the attempts to equate Gandhi with Modi and has been insisting that the model code of conduct had not been violated. Holding Gandhi?s ?merchants of death? remarks, the EC had issued notice to Gandhi asking her to file a reply by Tuesday.
The poll panel had said in its order that it had viewed the video recording of the speech and was prima facie of the view that the statement made in the speech? ?those running the Gujarat government are liars, betrayers and merchants of fear and death??amounted to violation of provisions of model code of conduct.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh and BJP leader VK Malhotra, who were also found prima facie guilty of breaching the code of conduct, replied to the notices before the Tuesday?s deadline. While Singh had reportedly spoken about Hindu terrorists in Gujarat, Malhotra was sought to be put in the dock for his accusations against Gandhi of being biased against Hindus.
