EC must act against Sarma's 'communal rhetoric', campaigning by Odisha governor: Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday hit out at the Election Commission for the "tone and tenor" of its recent letter to his party while also urging the poll body to act against "communal and incendiary rhetoric" allegedly used by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during poll campaigns.

In an interview with PTI, the Congress general secretary in-charge communications also urged the Election Commission (EC) to take action against Odisha Governor Raghubar Das for campaigning in Jamshedpur.

His remarks come days after the Congress slammed the EC after it rejected the party's allegations over irregularities in the Haryana assembly polls.

The opposition party had said if the poll panel's goal was to "strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality", then it was doing a "remarkable job" at creating that impression.

In its letter to the EC signed by nine senior leaders, including Ramesh, the Congress had said, "We have carefully studied your response to our complaints. Not surprisingly, the ECI has given a clean chit to itself. We would normally have let it be at that. However, the tone and tenor of the ECI's response, the language used, and the allegations made against the INC compel us to submit the counter-response." On the Congress' letter to the EC, Ramesh said, "I don't want to say anything more than what we have already said. In fact, we met the EC on Haryana on 20 assembly constituencies on which we had specific complaints. We met the EC on October 9 and they gave a response on October 29 and we would have (left the matter at that)," Ramesh said.

"We have exercised our democratic right, the EC heard us, they heard us patiently and they have responded but it is the manner in which they responded, the language that they used, the charges that they have hurled at us, giving a sense that they did us a favour by meeting a Congress delegation," he told PTI.

The EC is a constitutional body and its job is to meet political parties, Ramesh said.

"Its job is to listen, that is what we took objection to, we took objection to the tone and tenor of the language, we took objection to the patronising and condescending manner in which the Election Commission was calling into question the democratic right of a political party to be heard and to represent," the Congress leader said.

"We have to have our say, ultimately the EC will have its way and if you are still unhappy, we can go to court. So that is a separate issue," he added.

Ramesh said the EC could not say that it had done a political party a favour by meeting it and that by raising questions "you are spreading unrest and anarchy".

These are extraordinary statements to be made and put on record in writing to any political party, he said.

"This is not the way the EC should be replying," he added.

Ramesh is still hopeful that the EC is a constitutional body and should move on complaints.

"It should move against the communal and incendiary rhetoric that is being used by the Assam chief minister and the Union home minister. The governor of Odisha is sitting in Jamshedpur and campaigning, my colleague Ajoy Kumar has complained. Strictures should be passed on the governor for campaigning," the Congress general secretary said.

The Congress' letter to the EC last week said that if the Commission granted a recognised national party a hearing or examined issues raised by it in good faith, it was not an "exception" or "indulgence" but the performance of a duty which it was required to do.

"If the Commission is refusing to grant us a hearing or refusing to engage on certain complaints (which it has done in the past), then the law allows recourse to the higher courts' extraordinary jurisdiction to compel the ECI to discharge this function (as happened in 2019)," the letter had said.

The Congress leaders who had petitioned the EC alleging irregularities in the Haryana polls said every reply from the EC now seemed to be laced with ad-hominem attacks on either individual leaders or the party itself.

The leaders had said the Congress' communications confined themselves to issues and were written with a regard for the high office of the chief election commissioner and his brother commissioners.

"However, the ECI's reply are written in a tone that is condescending. If the current ECI's goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression," the party had said in its letter to the EC.

"Judges who write decisions do not attack or demonise the party raising the issues. However, if the ECI persists then we shall have no choice but to seek legal recourse to expunge such remarks (a remedy with which the ECI is familiar since it unsuccessfully sought to do the same with a high court's unflattering but accurate observations after Covid)," said the letter signed by Ramesh, KC Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Ajay Maken, Abhishek Singhvi, Uday Bhan, Partap Singh Bajwa and Pawan Khera.

In a strongly-worded letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the poll panel said such "frivolous and unfounded" doubts had the potential of creating "turbulence" when crucial steps like polling and counting were in live play, a time of peak anxiousness for both the public and the political parties.

The BJP retained power in Haryana, winning 48 of the 90 seats in the October 5 assembly elections. The Congress bagged 37 seats, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) two and Independents three.