Lok
Sabha Election is the most trending news !
- India goes to polls in seven phases from 11
April to 19 May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha. The counting of votes
will be conducted on 23 May, and on the same day the results will be declared. Legislative
Assembly elections in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha
and Sikkim will be held simultaneously with the general election. Since the independence, political parties in
India have grown many folds, up by about 780 percent from a handful of 54
parties in 1950 to 475 parties in 2014.To be recognised as a state or national
party, registered political parties have to secure a minimum percentage of
valid votes/numbers of seats in the Lok Sabha or state assembly.
Election
Commission is the body that conducts elections; they have prescribed model code
of conduct for guidance of political parties and candidates.
The
General conduct prescribes that :
1. No party or candidate shall include in
any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred
or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or
linguistic.
2. Criticism of other political parties,
when made, shall be confined to their policies and programme, past record and
work. Parties and Candidates shall refrain from criticism of all aspects of
private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or
workers of other parties. Criticism of other parties or their workers based on
unverified allegations or distortion shall be avoided.
3. There shall be no appeal to caste or
communal feelings for securing votes. Mosques, Churches, Temples or other
places of worship shall not be used as forum for election propaganda.
4. All parties and candidates shall avoid
scrupulously all activities which are “corrupt practices” and offences under
the election law, such as bribing of voters, intimidation of voters,
impersonation of voters, canvassing within 100 meters of polling stations,
holding public meetings during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour
fixed for the close of the poll, and the transport and conveyance of voters to
and from polling station.
5. The right of every individual for
peaceful and undisturbed home-life shall be respected, however much the
political parties or candidates may resent his political opinions or
activities. Organizing demonstrations or picketing before the houses of
individuals by way of protesting against their opinions or activities shall not
be resorted to under any circumstances.
6. No political party or candidate shall
permit its or his followers to make use of any individual’s land, building,
compound wall etc., without his permission for erecting flag-staffs, suspending
banners, pasting notices, writing slogans etc.
7. Political parties and candidates shall
ensure that their supporters do not create obstructions in or break up meetings
and processions organized by other parties. Workers or sympathisers of one
political party shall not create disturbances at public meetings organized by
another political party by putting questions orally or in writing or by
distributing leaflets of their own party. Processions shall not be taken out by
one party along places at which meetings are held by another party. Posters
issued by one party shall not be removed by workers of another party.
..
.. .. .. Election
commission has jumped into action ~ at many places, the names of political
leaders inscribed on public platforms, statues etc., have been covered – at
Marina saw that newspapers have been pasted at the pedestal of many statues
crudely covering the name of the then Chief Ministers who had inaugurated at
that time .. .. Marina beach has many statues dotted along – the recent
addition being that of ‘Tholkappiyar’ in front of Oriental research Institute of
Madras University nearer my home. …….
the culture of statues has a long history and is not new to Tamilnadu alone –
and there have been some clashes arising out of issues involving statues, it is
another colonial vestige. At important
road junctions, at landmark buildings – we have statues of leaders and others
lying uncared for in a state of neglect.
There are statues in a row in the Marina beach with bird droppings and
dirty looks. In the northern State, one
CM went berserk installing statues of party symbol and self and the opposition
leader appealed to the Centre not to release funds to State fearing that they
would create more statues.
Originally,
statues were installed to propagate the memory of great leaders, poets and
visionaries of the Society and even in a place where rationalists question
religion, there arose very many statues to leaders of importance. It was to
instill in upcoming generations some knowledge and recalling of the glorious
acts of the erstwhile leaders. It is unfortunate that instead of learning,
sometimes they become the reason for public disturbance.
some Chennaites would remember this ~ at the all important
junction known as Kathipara [now overshadowed by the clover bridge and Alandur
Metro Station] was once a junction, a roundabout with the statue of India's
first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The statue was removed from its place to
give way for the flyover and now stands forlorn in the roundabout from airport
towards Porur beneath the bridge. It has some added significance as on that
fateful day in May 1991 –on an election campaign, Rajiv Gandhji landed up at
Madras, met the press, stopped at Kathipara Junction at around 0915 pm to
garland Jawaharlal Nehru’s statue …… reached Sriperumpudur, garlanded the
statue of Indira Gandhi and took that fateful step at around 10.20 pm at
Sriperumpudur… makes a sad reading.
A
few years ago, during the elections in Uttar Pradesh Election Commission (EC)
ordered masking of the umpteen elephant statues that Mayavati had erected
across the state. In Tamil Nadu in 2014, they issued orders to
cover CM’s pictures on the boards of
"Amma Unvagam" (Amma Canteens), her block-buster food security
initiative that serves hot cooked meals to thousands of people every day. A fortnight ago,
in a move defying every logic came the order to cover beautiful kolams inside
Sri Villiputhur Sri Andal Temple under the pretext that they were lotus, party
symbol of BJP’. There were many protests
on the social media and subsequently that order was revised.
Now
read this news in TOI Chennai edition : activists who garland freedom fighter
Su Nellaiyappar’s statue in Chromepet on his birth and death anniversaries
every year had to keep their routine celebrations on hold till the last moment.
Poll officials had covered the statue mistaking Nellaiyappar for a political
leader.Members of a local organization submitted a letter at the Chromepet
police station and sought help to remove the cloth wrapped around the statue. S
Meenakshi Sundaram, treasurer of Tamil Peravai, spoke to the assistant
returning officer and election officer after which the statue was uncovered.
“We
have been garlanding the statue for 30 years. We also distribute food to 100
poor people in the neighbourhood on his birth and death anniversaries. We have
been trying to approach officials to let us garland the statue but they kept
dodging us,” said Meenakshi. With the celebrations in doubt till Thursday
morning, Tamil Peravai members could not arrange for the food.“Nellaiyappar was
not a politician and there was no need to cover his statue,” said R Ramadoss,
lawyer and social activist. Nellaiyappar was a native of Parali, a village in
Tirunelveli. A school in his name was later set up in the mid-1950s in
Bharathipuram, Chromepet to educate children free of cost. He had donated the
plot for the school. However, it was shut down due to lack of patronage.
Interesting
!
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
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