By IANS
Ahmedabad : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Saturday evening sent his reply to the Election Commission’s notice, saying he was misquoted in media reports of his speech allegedly justifying an extra-judicial killing, even as he demanded a notice against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Arun Jaitley told reporters here that the party has replied to the poll panel.
“The Election Commission had sent us a few newspaper clippings and a CD of Modi’s speech. We have clarified that the report has several sentences which were not there in the CD, changing the whole context,” said Jatley, BJP’s in charge of the Gujarat elections.
The poll panel had served a notice to Modi after the Congress complained he had violated the Code of Conduct when he justified Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s killing in a staged police shootout in 2005.
Modi was addressing a rally in Mangrol in south Gujarat Dec 4 when he allegedly made controversial remarks.
While the anti-terror squad of the Gujarat police had killed Sohrabuddin after branding him a terrorist, a Supreme Court-ordered probe had led to the arrest of several top police officers and the state police had admitted to their errors in an affidavit before the apex court.
Modi was given time till 11 a.m. to explain his statements. Jaitley said his reply was ready Friday night, “but as he was campaigning, we could manage to get his signature only now”.
Quoting from Modi’s reply, Jaitley said the chief minister had also asked the Election Commission to serve a similar notice to Gandhi and senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh.
Modi pointed out that Gandhi in her speech at an election rally in Gujarat earlier this month had said “merchants of death” were ruling Gujarat while Singh in a media interaction had said there was “Hindu terrorism” in the state.
Jaitley said that while Congress leader Kapil Sibal had tried to clarify that Gandhi’s remarks were not aimed at Modi, party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi had Saturday insisted that the remarks were indeed meant for Modi.
“Now that we have the clarification, the Election Commission must send a notice to Gandhi,” Jaitley said.
Quoting Modi’s reply, he said: “The Election Commission should also take note of the very statements to which I was responding. I too have the right to freedom of speech. If somebody calls me a merchant of death, if somebody calls people of
Gujarat Hindu terrorists, I have a right to respond.”