New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS): The Congress and Janata Dal-United on Friday complained to the Election Commission that the BJP was "promoting lies, false propaganda and communal tension" through advertisements in the ongoing Bihar elections.
"In the ongoing Bihar elections, the BJP has been promoting lies, false propaganda and communal tension through advertisements. This has vitiated the electoral process by promoting communal tension," said a memorandum submitted to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi by Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala and Ajoy Kumar and JD-U's K.C. Tyagi.
To buttress the claim, the memorandum included texts of some of the advertisements.
"As you will see from these ads, it is a shameless attempt at spreading false propaganda and creating communal tension by the use and misuse of select words in ambiguous contexts, that could be interpreted by multiple factions for inciting violence between communities," said the memorandum.
Giving examples, the memorandum said: "An ad states that the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal-United and Congress leaders are giving sanctuary to terrorists to appease a particular community for votes. The name of the particular community becomes clear when seen in the context of a previous advertisement that spoke about the Muslim community's appeasement by the RJD, JD-U and Congress by robbing the plate of Dalits."
"The advertisement further alleges Bihar government's role in delayed arrest of (Indian Mujahideen's alleged terrorist) Yasin Bhatkal from the Nepal border. It questions if the delay was to allow a national traitor to escape or to make a particular community feel the government's benevolence. The connection between letting Bhatkal escape and a community is done only to connect Bhatkal with the Muslim community," the memorandum added.
"The advertisement alleges that due to negligence of JD-U leaders, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) terrorists are thriving in Bihar. The usage of the word thriving again may be called innocuous but reeks of an intentional ambiguity to label all minority population of Bihar as being those of LeT and ISI allegiance," it added.