EC gives clean chit to Rahul over speech against Shah

New Delhi: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's recent remarks, tagging BJP chief Amit Shah a murder-accused at an election campaign, was not a violation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the Election Commission said here on Thursday.

In a separate statement, the poll panel also gave a third clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after it found that his April 21 speech in Barmer, Rajasthan, where he had warned Pakistan saying India's nuclear arsenal is not meant for Diwali, did not violate the MCC

On Gandhi, EC officials said the "complaint was examined in detail and after examination of the complete transcript of speech sent by the district electoral officer of Jabalpur, the Commission is of the considered view that no violation of the model code of conduct is made out."

Gandhi made the purported remark during an election rally in Sihora district of Madhya Pradesh on April 23.

Attacking the BJP president, Gandhi reportedly said, "Murder accused BJP chief Amit Shah. Wah, kya shaan hai! (Wow, what a glory!)"

The BJP had complained to the EC about the comment.

The remark had prompted a strong rebuttal from Shah, who questioned the opposition leader's "legal knowledge" and said the "fake"

charge was dismissed as "politically motivated" by the court long ago.

While addressing an election rally in Barmer, Modi had said: "Bharat ne Pakistan ki dhamki se darne ki neeti ko chod diya. Yeh theek kiya na maine? Warna aaye din, 'humare paas nuclear button hai, nuclear button hai'. Yehi kehte thhe? Humare akbaarwale bhi likthe thhe, Pakistan ke paas bhi nuclear hai. Toh humare paas kya hai, bhai, yeh Diwali ke liye rakha hai kya? (India has discarded the policy of being scared of Pakistan's threats. I did right, didn't I? Because every other day, they would say, 'we have the nuclear button'. Isn't that what they used to say? Our newspapers also wrote, 'Pakistan,

too, has a nuclear weapon'. So what do we have, is it kept for Diwali?)."

With today's decision, the poll watchdog has cleared three of the five Congress complaints against the Prime Minister.

On Wednesday, the EC cleared the Prime Minister's speech at Wardha under the MCC. He had appealed first-time voters by invoking the Balakot airstrikes in Latur, Maharashtra, on April 9.