Repeat telecast of Modi’s US speech under scanner

New Delhi: Election Commission said that the issue of the repeat telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at Madison Square Garden by several Marathi channels ahead of Assembly polls in Maharashtra was "under examination". Congress had complained to the poll body that BJP had misused the speech for electoral gains by sponsoring its repeat telecast last week. "It is under examination," DG in the Commission, PK Dash, told reporters when asked whether EC had taken a decision in the matter.

But EC sources said that any action against BJP was unlikely as, according to the report submitted by the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer, the telecast was cleared by the media monitoring committee which keeps a tab on media during the operation of the model code of conduct. EC had recently said that it had found nothing Modi's radio broadcast 'Maan Ki Baat' which was violative of the model code. Congress had moved EC against the radio broadcast alleging that BJP had misused state machinery to further its electoral ends as the programme was aired when the model code was in force.