'Utterly puerile, is ban on EC next?': Modi on opinion poll ban

The proposed ban on opinion polls appears to have riled, among others, the man who the Congress party appears to believe has gained the most from the recent string of pre-poll surveys that have predicted heavy losses for the Congress in coming Assembly elections.

Writing on his blog, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi called the Congress party’s stated intention to seek a ban on pre-poll opinion polls as unsurprising.

“The biggest casualty of the Congress Party’s arrogance while in power and its tendency to trample over institutions has been our Fundamental Right to Free Speech,” Modi writes .

While Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley called the proposed ban unconstitutional and while other experts including former bureaucrats have said such a move may be thrown out by the courts, Modi picked the opportunity to detail past instances when the UPA appeared to be muzzling free speech.

“It was not too long ago that the UPA Government showed us how intolerant it was of Social Media criticism when Twitter handles were suspended by the Government. On that occasion I had blackened my Twitter display picture as a mark of solidarity with all those in Social Media who were speaking up for free speech and expression. On the Nirvan Diwas of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in 2011, many Central Ministers spoke of controlling social media. Irony truly died a hundred times over that day. Some months back a Restaurant in Mumbai was threatened for expressing its Opinion against the UPA’s Policies in a creative manner on a Sales Receipt,” Modi writes.

From “Bhishma to Kautilya”, he continues, Indian statesmen have had their finger on the pulse of public opinion, he says, adding that the UPA appears to have lost that connect completely and is expending its energies on “non-serious issues” and “misplaced priorities”.  Calling for a ban on them because they say what the Congress does not want to hear is “utterly puerile”, he writes.

What next, he asks. Could election-season blogs by other leaders, and eventually the Election Commission itself be sought to be banned? “… and if the Courts do not support them then they may say why not ban the courts,” he says.

Modi also quotes two others who spoke out against the proposed ban, Chetan Bhagat and Biju Janata Dal Parliamentarian Baijayant Panda.

A few hours after Modi’s blog post was published, one of the apparent Team BJP’s Twitter handles posted a link to it, tagging @Jay_Panda. “NaMo has quoted you in his blog.. Comments?” came the tweet from @NaMoforPM.

Panda, having already spoken on the idea of a ban, also tweeted on Tuesday. In an apparent reference to Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s suggestion that opinion polls can be manipulated and corrupt, he tweeted: No doubt some #OpinionPolls are unscientific, even deliberately manipulated. But don’t underestimate voters, they’ll figure out wheat from chaff," he said. But not before responding to @NaMoforPM. “Er.. Thanks?” he said.