New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI), under its advertising codes and guidelines, wants the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to “modify” its campaign song, which it says criticises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) based on “unverified facts”, “casts aspersions on the judiciary”, “incites violence”, and contains “slanderous remarks for the police”.
The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), who works under the ECI, wrote to the AAP Saturday, flagging the alleged violations in the song released by the party Friday at its headquarters in New Delhi.
AAP MLA Dilip Pandey composed and gave voice to the two-minute three-second-long rap song titled “Jail ka jawab hum vote se denge”.
The Delhi CEO’s office, in its letter, a copy of which is with ThePrint, raised eight objections pertaining to the song, and “requested” the AAP to “modify the contents” and resubmit the song.
In a statement, issued late Sunday, the Delhi CEO’s office said that the decision was arrived at by its media pre-certification committee.
MUST WATCH🔥👇
AAP’s Campaign Song For 2024 Lok Sabha Elections Is OUT NOW 🎶🎵#AAPKaCampaignSong pic.twitter.com/8dJPAhN3wx
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) April 25, 2024
Meanwhile, the AAP hit back saying the decision by the ECI’s arm was “dictatorial”.
“This is probably the first time in the history of India that the poll body has banned a party’s election campaign song. This is the same Election Commission that says nothing when the BJP is making fun of the Model Code of Conduct on a daily basis. But if the AAP leaders even breathe, they are served another notice,” Delhi AAP minister Atishi told the media.
In its response, the Delhi CEO’s office said that it has not banned the song, but sought a modification.
“The said creative/advertisement was returned along with the observations with the request to modify the contents of the creative as per the Advertising Codes prescribed under the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 and ECI guideline/ norms circulated vide letter dated 24 August, 2023 and resubmit after modification, for the certification,” it said.
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Objections to the song
Among the objections regarding the song raised by the electoral watchdog include the usage of the phrase “jail ka jawab hum vote se denge (we will respond to jail with our votes)” accompanied by visuals of an “aggressive mob holding a photo of Arvind Kejriwal showing him behind the bars”.
It “casts aspersions on the judiciary”, the Delhi CEO’s office said in its letter.
The phrase “tanashahi party ko hum chot denge (we will hurt the dictatorial party)” amounts to an apparent incitement of violence, it said.
The police are shown in “bad taste” through the phrase “gunda gardi ke khilaf vote denge and tanashahi karne wale party ko hum chot denge” as it is accompanied by visuals of police escorting Delhi’s former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, it stated.
The phrase “awazein khilaf thi jo sabko jail mai daal dia, bas unko hi bahar rakha jisne unko maal dia…(voices were against them, so they put everyone in jail, only sparing those who paid them)” amounts to making “slanderous remarks and is a criticism of the ruling party on the basis of unverified facts and also casts aspersion on the judiciary,” it added.
Atishi said the Delhi CEO’s letter has laid bare the “dictatorial face of the BJP”. What stood out in the letter was the fact that the CEO’s office construed the lines on “dictatorship” in the song as criticism of the BJP despite no mention of the ruling party, she added.
“That means the ECI itself believes that the BJP is running a dictatorial rule in this country. They are considering any opposition to dictatorship as opposition to the BJP, any talk of dictatorship is being considered as the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, because they also know that, today, the BJP is showing signs of absolute dictatorship,” she said.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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