Mind your language, EC warns KCR

Hyderabad: The Election Commission on Wednesday reprimanded Bharat Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao and barred him from campaigning for 48 hours for his "objectionable" remarks against the Congress.

The EC said the remarks made by KCR at a press conference in Sircilla on April 5 were violative of the provisions of the model code of conduct and its advisories. According to the complaint, KCR used words like “because ‘lathkhors’ who were not aware of the capacity of water, are ruling the kingdom.”

He also said, “Your government is the government of lathkhors and you have won by 1.8 percentage votes by speaking lies and you are “Pakka Chavatas, Daddammas, Chetakanai Chavatas” (You are useless fellows).

KCR, the complaint said, had also commented saying, “If you fail to give Rs 500 as bonus we will bite your throats and kill.” He further used words like “kukkanaa kodukullara, dongana koduku lara..”

TPCC senior vice-president G Niranjan filed a complaint with the ECI objecting to the language used by the former chief minister. Following this, the ECI issued a show cause notice to KCR.

In his reply, KCR defended saying that there was nothing wrong in what he had said as it was part of the Telangana lingo. He said, “the officers in charge of election in Telangana and Sircilla are not Telugu people and they hardly understand the local dialect of Telugu.” He said the Congress party had picked some sentences and the English translation was not correct and twisted. He said he had confined himself to criticism of the policies and programmes of the Congress party in the State and their failure to fulfill the promises made during the Assembly elections and that he had made no criticism of personal aspects of any Congress leader.

The ECI said that as per the ‘General Code of Conduct,’ “Criticism of other political parties, when made, shall be confined to their policies and programmes and past record and work. Parties and candidates shall refrain from criticism of all aspects of private life, not connected with public activities of the leaders or workers of other parties.”

The EC was not satisfied with the explanation of KCR and hence imposed the ban on his campaign for 48 hours.