VIJAYAWADA: The Election Commission of India has directed the Additional Director General of CID (Cyber Cell) to take necessary action on the complaint from the YSRC regarding the purported propagation of false, incorrect and unverified allegations against the Land Titling Act through paid IVR calls by the TDP.
Based on the complaint filed by Vijayawada Central YSRC MLA Malladi Vishnu that false propaganda was being spread through paid IVR calls from 07971318532, +917317956049 and +917313790769 numbers by the TDP and making false, unquantifiable, incorrect and unverified allegations regarding the Land Titling Act, a memo was issued by Additional Chief Electoral Officer MN Harendhira Prasad on Saturday.
The memo sought the CID Additional Director General to take necessary action into the matter in accordance with the existing laws, and the extant instructions/guidelines of the ECI and furnish the action taken report, immediately.
In the complaint to the Election Commission, the YSRC narrated a voice message from the TDP saying “Dear public, be aware you are going to lose your wealth, with the Land Titling Act, and it will be implemented in two days, as responsible citizens you should vote to Chandrababu and save your wealth.”
The message in other voice records, which were submitted to the ECI, read “Your land records and wealth records should be given to Jagan government, and you should only keep xerox copies, you heard it right, Jagan Land Titling Act, with this new Act your wealth will be stolen, it will be implemented in two days, dear public Beware” ...important notice, your wealth is gone, your original land records must be given to Jagan government and you can only keep xerox set, yes you heard it right, Jagan Land Titling Act, with this new named Act, your wealth is escrowed, this will be implemented in two days, dear public Beware, Save your wealth, and only option for us, that is vote for responsible Chandrababu.”
Complaining that the voice recording and IVR calls are initiated by the opposition parties, especially the TDP, with a malafide intention and naming Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as ‘land grabber’ and ‘everyone in the State would lose their own land if Jagan comes to power again’ is prima facie violation of Model Code of Conduct that is in force for the following reasons:
As per the MCC guidelines, a party should not indulge in any activity propagating false, unquantifiable, unsubstantiated, incorrect and unverified allegations. However, the voice recordings of the IVR calls are intended to create fear among the voters, and winning of YSRC is detrimental to their wealth.
As per the above-referred guideline, criticism of a political party must be confined only to “policies and programme, past record and work’’. However, in the present case, TDP resorted to abusing Jagan in the guise of incorrectly stated information on the YSRC government policies and programmes, past records and work.
The YSRC requested the ECI to take cognizance of the said IVR calls/voice recordings that are being made through different mobile numbers/telecom operators, those are being received by the voters.
“It is a clear violation of the MCC guidelines, to propagate such information, given by the Election Commission of India regarding the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC). However, we learned that TDP has made foul play to get said MCMC certification from the authorities, without disclosing the actual information to be advertised as part of their campaign, misled the authorities, and the said advertising content violates the MCC guidelines. It is submitted that when the elections are nearing. The nomination phase is also completed such false information must not be made available since that would create fear in the public at large, disrupt social harmony, mislead the public at large, and illegality, influence the elections and accordingly, are violative of the Model Code of Conduct,” the complaint read.
It sought the ECI to direct the TDP to pull down and stop such activism, immediately call for the explanation for the same, and also direct the TDP to produce the required MCMC certification for the said paid advertisement, IVR calls made that are part of their party election campaign.
It also wanted the ECI to direct the concerned telecom operators to stop facilitating such illegal election campaign and seek an explanation for allowing it to happen without necessary approvals. The YSRC also urged the EC to take strict action against the said paid advertisement and punish the personnel accountable for the same including, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, general secretary Nara Lokesh, and their electronic campaign team for perjury of the MCMC certification. The YSRC also wanted the ECI to direct the MCMC authority to call the certification taken with the falsity of information and cancel the same with immediate effect.