Knappily Daily Session 2

Model Code of Conduct | Dantewada & Naxalism | Brexit Deadline(s)

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Freedom of expression?

Propaganda?

MCC: the red line • The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is a consensus document consisting of a set of guidelines

intended to help the poll campaign maintain high standards of public morality and provide a level playing field for all parties and candidates.

• The Code is derived from the executive powers under Article 324 of the Constitution of India. The Election Commission of India is entitled to issue instructions exercising absolute powers under Article 324 to ensure that the elections are conducted in a free and fair manner.

• It is a set of norms which has been evolved with the consensus of political parties who have consented to abide by the principles embodied in the said code and also binds them to respect and observe it in its letter and spirit.

A method to the madness

• The MCC is valid from the date of announcement of an election, either to the Parliament, State Assembly or Districts, and continues through the election in progress.

• It also ensures that the official machinery for the electoral purposes is not misused. Further, it ensures that electoral offences, malpractices and corrupt practices such as impersonation, bribing and inducement of voters, threat and intimidation to the voters are prevented by all means.

• A total ban on transfer and posting of all officers/officials directly or indirectly connected with the conduct of the election is put in effect.

• Advertisements regarding the achievements of the ruling party at the cost of public exchequer in print and electronic media and the misuse of official mass media are prohibited

• No fresh release of funds under MPs/MLAs/MLCs Local Area Development Fund of any scheme can be made in any area where the election is in progress

Also showing in the political theatre • Asking for votes in the name of the Indian Army. Following the imposition of MCC on March

10, the ECI had issued an advisory on March 19 asking all political parties not to use the defence forces during their election campaign. But the Prime Minister on April 9 asked the first-time voters if they would not vote for ‘those who conducted the Balakot air strikes’.

• The curious case of NaMo TV. Running programs that were not certified & within the 48-hour prohibited period.

• Mayawati’s direct appeal to Muslim voters not to divide their vote by choosing the Congress party. And Yogi Adityanath’s Ali-BajrangBali response. Fanning religious passion is in violation of MCC.

• The model code states: "There shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes.” Invoking religion to seek votes, or making statements to the effect of creating disharmony between two communities, is a violation of the poll conduct and may invite prosecution under Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (Promoting enmity between classes in connection with election), Sections 153A, 153B, l7lC, 295A and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code and Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1988.

But even a layman would tell you that elections in India are decided on the basis of caste and religion. What can the EC do about it?

Can the EC send political parties to jail? Strict implementation of the MCC by the EC began only in 1991.

• In 2013, the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice recommended the MCC be part of the Representation of People Act, 1951. The standing committee observed that the provisions mentioned in the MCC are already enforceable through corresponding Indian Penal Code (IPC) provisions.

• In 2014, the EC reasoned that the elections are conducted within a very limited time frame, that is, 45 days from the day of announcement of election schedule by the commission. It pointed out that as judicial proceedings typically take time due to delay in presenting proof, it simply was not feasible to make MCC enforceable by law.

• The same year, on April 30, 2014, an FIR was filed against Narendra Modi, then a Prime Ministerial candidate, for a political speech and for displaying party symbol outside the Gandhinagar polling booth in Gujarat. On April 14, 2016, the ECI issued a show cause notice to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, for announcing a new district at a poll rally in Asansol.

• in all these instances of MCC violations, the cases were subsequently dropped. In fact, the ECI had said, “Bringing the MCC on the statute book will only be counter-productive.”

That is why, in the absence of any legal teeth for the MCC, the ECI is empowering the citizens to report political misconduct through the C-vigil application, of course, with proof, in the form of a video or photograph that are geo-tagged.

Powers yes. Use of those powers no. • The Supreme Court observed in S. Subramaniam Balaji v. Govt. of Tamil Nadu (2013) that the Election

Commission, in order to ensure a level playing field for contesting parties and candidates, and also to see that the purity of election process does not get vitiated, has been issuing instructions under the MCC, exercising its power under Article 324.

• The MCC contains eight parts. Part I deals with general conduct expected from candidates and political parties. Parts II and III focus on public meetings and processions. Parts IV and V describe how political parties and candidates should conduct themselves on the day of polling and at the polling booths. Part VI is about the authority (observer) appointed by the EC to receive complaints on violations of the MCC. Part VII deals with the party in power & VIII with the manifestos.

• The Commission has issued a plethora of instructions and taken action, wherever necessary, against political parties or persons violating these directions. The Courts, from time to time, have upheld such directions/actions of the EC. The EC can take a range of actions in case of violation of the Code, including the imposition of fine, filing of FIR that leads to imprisonment, or even cancelling the polls in that constituency.

• During Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh in 2003, the Commission found that the then Chief Minister of Punjab used a state government aircraft for campaigning, in violation of the provision of the MCC that forbids ministers from combining official work with electioneering. The EC forced him to pay the government the cost of the entire air journey. But such actions are rare & lack deterrence. Following the Model Code of Conduct is purely hinged on morality, not the fear of law.

Dantewada again

A wake up call • Bhima Mandavi, a BJP lawmaker, and four others were killed on April 9 when Maoists (Naxals) ambushed his convoy in

the Dantewada region of Chhattisgarh. Dantewada has been particularly badly hit by Maoist violence. In 2010, when 74 policemen were killed in the region.

• Before the 2013 assembly election, the entire top leadership of the Chhattisgarh Congress was wiped out in a Maoist attack on a convoy at Darba Valley of Sukma district, including then state party chief Nand Kumar Patel, senior party leader VC Shukla and party legislator Mahendra Karma.

• As the general elections began with the first phase underway to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha, the Naxal threat loomed large on some seats in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Voting remained largely peaceful in Bastar, with an average voter turnout of around 60 percent recorded.

• In the last three years, 336 Maoists and 151 security personnel have been killed in Chhattisgarh in violence linked to Left-wing insurgency. For the last 50 years, Maoist guerrillas have been fighting against the Indian state to establish a communist society - the conflict has so far claimed at least 40,000 lives. They are better known as Naxalites, named after the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal, where a violent left-wing uprising occurred in 1967.

• Naxalism is a form of Maoism which in turn is a form of left wing extremism. The difference is purely of nomenclature. Naxalism originated in the Naxalbari district of Bengal. Holding that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun", Maoist thought emphasises the revolutionary struggle of the vast majority of people against the ruling classes and the state structure. Mao called this the People's War: Mobilising large parts of rural population to revolt against established institutions by engaging in guerrilla warfare.

• Although the Naxalbari rising was eventually quashed, Maoists have since regrouped and asserted control over vast swathes of central and eastern India. The movement is made up of Marxist ideologues from well-to-do families and poor, lower-caste and tribal combatants, all of whom seek to overthrow what they say is a "semi-feudal" system. But the Indian government considers them a terrorist group.

Theoretically speaking, Terrorism is against National Integrity & Naxalism is against the government.

But, as one Quora post declares, it is all about branding!

Almost eliminated, but never entirely • Initially the movement was restricted to West Bengal. Thereafter, it spread to the less developed areas

of rural central and eastern India, such as, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh through the activities of underground groups like the Communist Party of India (Maoist). It has also found some resonance in the north-east of India. A steady flow of military and financial aid from China further strengthened the movement, allowing it to take deeper roots in Andrah Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand.

• It is not a coincidence that Naxal movement has manifested in mineral-rich areas such as Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand. These areas have been significant contributors to India’s mineral produce and the armed naxals feel it is unfair that ‘outsiders’ benefit from the natural wealth of their areas.

• By the 1990s Naxalism had been reduced to irrelevancy, prompting national and state governments to focus on more pressing problems. Given breathing space, the Naxalites were able to rebound and then expand. By 2004 the two largest Naxalite factions joined together to form a new organization, the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). The creation of CPI-Maoist was a watershed event, ending the era of inter-factional violence among the Naxals and paving the way for a Naxalite resurgence.

• The area of India where support for Naxalism runs highest has been called "the red corridor", a long stretch of territory reaching from the southern tip of Andhra Pradesh to the eastern regions of West Bengal.

Why not send in the Army? • It is a guerrilla war. The Naxalites operate in a wide area that is filled with deep forests, mountains and

rivers. Indian Army has massive fire power, but no professional army is trained to tackle sustained guerrilla warfare. It will be a really expensive and long-drawn affair is the Army has to be posted in the Red Corridor on a permanent basis.

• Public Relations (PR) nightmare. Using an army inside a country, anywhere in the world, should be the last resort. The police have deeper ground relationships and understand the terrain and people much better than the army. In past success stories, such as containing terrorism in Punjab, it was the police who led the charge in anti-terrorism. India will be accused of using its army against its own people. Also, deploying the army in the middle of the country will signal to the world that India's administration is unable to get the house fixed the normal way.

• Indian Army is already over-stretched. Defending long borders on the East and the West, and fighting terrorism in J&K and North East, Indian Army has barely enough to even meet the current requirements. To hand over the Naxal-infested states to them to sort out - they just don’t have the bandwidth for it.

• The paramilitary forces have been raised for a reason. And that reason is fighting insurgency. The solution is not replacing the paramilitary battalions with army battalions. It is better-equipping the paramilitary and ensuring the personnel are in good health and spirits. By mid-2012, about 100,000 paramilitary personnel were deployed by the Indian government in the anti-Maoist operation from the CRPF, Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and CoBRA. Though Green Hunt was successful, it led to high-profile counter-attacks by the naxals.

The way forward • Since the beginning of Naxal movement, the government of India has treated it as a mere law and order

problem & followed a standard repetitive strategy of mounting a massive police response after each Naxal attack.

• The near-constant fight has disrupted or destroyed many basic services such as access to schools, hospitals & clean water. In Dantewada, only 2 percent of the rural households had access to clean tap water. A survey by the Ministry of Women and Child Development also found that 38 percent of tribal children below 5 year of age are underweight and 44 percent have stunted growth.

• The few developmental programs, such as training and placement of tribal youth (under Pandit Deen Dayal Upayadhaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana) and skill development centers, are also not able to reduce the spread of Naxalism. The astronomical economic segregation between rural and urban areas, social inequity, and weakness of administration mechanisms were the primary reasons of the rise and spread of Naxalism.

• The Colombia peace deal can provide a working template. The Colombia peace process was signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP), which ended the approximately five-decade-old civil war.

• Comprehensive rural reform to ensure holistic development of the rural population, increasing and improving citizen participation in the government, and involving the victims of establishment or rebel atrocities in the actual negotiation process.

Brexit deadlines

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