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No ban on raising Kargil, says EC

The Election Commission today clarified that it has not barred political parties from raising the Kargil conflict in their poll campaigns but only asked them not to ''drag in'' the armed forces into controversy.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill said the EC's directive of August 19, barring screening of any documentary on Kargil, had acknowledged that Kargil ''is perhaps the major issue of debate'' during the coming Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The commission also said that the parties could debate the issue in front of their political masters -- the people.

''At no time have we said don't discuss Kargil. All we have said is that the time-tested tradition of keeping the armed forces out of political controversies should be respected,'' he added.

However, he side-stepped a question on whether it was possible to discuss Kargil without bringing in the armed forces.

Describing the campaigning and implementation of the Model Code of Conduct so far as ''very satisfactory'', Dr Gill appealed to all political parties to exercise restraint. Replying to a question on the reported complaint by the Congress, that the BJP candidate for the Bellary Lok Sabha seat Sushma Swaraj had violated the code of conduct by referring to the ''foreign origin'' of her rival candidate and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, Dr Gill said no such complaint had been received so far.

''We have seen newspaper reports about this. But, we do not get excited by media reports on this or any other issue being raised by candidates. We will consider the matter when we officially get a report about this. We are not putting off or shying away from taking a decision,'' he added.

Dr Gill said the commission members had a ''worthwhile meeting'' with the Prasar Bharati board yesterday and stressed the need for the public broadcaster to cover the elections in a fair and impartial manner. The private television channels should also keep the national interest in mind and be fair in their reporting of the elections, he added.

On a query about the recovery of duplicate ballot boxes in Bihar, Dr Gill said these were unearthed on the initiative of the commission. Of the 380,000 ballot boxes in Bihar, only 1387 were found to have duplicate numbers. Necessary legal action was being taken in this regard and the commission was alert about the conduct of a free and fair election, Dr Gill added.

While stating that the commission was not targetting any particular state or individual, he said the ballot papers for Bihar were printed in Delhi and flown down to Patna by an Air Force plane as the commission wanted to guard against misuse of fake ballot papers in the state.

On the security arrangements for the polls, especially in Jammu and Kashmir where incidents of border firing and terrorist attacks were continuing, the CEC said the commission was keeping a watch on the situation and discussing the matter with the officials.

''The decisions would be taken when the time comes,'' he added.

Dr Gill said he had a meeting with Union home secretary Kamal Pande to discuss the security arrangements and was ''confident'' of the measures taken. To a question on the demand by West Bengal to stagger the polling and for more security forces, Dr Gill said there was no question of changing the poll date. However, the request for more security forces was being considered, he said.

To a question on the use of electronic voting machines, Dr Gill said these could not be used in several states in the north-east, Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar because of ''logistics'' and other reasons. However, he was hopeful that the next Lok Sabha elections and assembly polls in the next century would be conducted entirely on EVMs.

UNI

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