By IANS
New Delhi : The Election Commission has issued a notice to Congress president Sonia Gandhi to explain her “merchant of death” remark made during the Gujarat poll campaign.
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh has also been issued notice for his statement on “Hindu terrorism” in Gujarat.
Both have been given time till Tuesday to file their replies.
The notices come a day after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi replied to his notice to explain his speech allegedly justifying the extra-judicial killing of a Muslim man in 2005.
In his response to the poll panel, Modi had sought “an even handed approach” and asserted that the commission should also serve notice for violation of the Model Code of Conduct on Sonia Gandhi and Digvijay Singh for their remarks.
Modi said that he referred to Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who was killed by the Gujarat police in a staged shootout, in his Dec 4 speech only under provocation from Gandhi who had described him as “maut ke saudagar (merchant of death)” in her speech a day earlier.
He pointed out that the CD of his speech, on the basis of which the poll panel issued him the show cause notice, makes it clear that he never said that he had got Sheikh killed.
The Congress had dithered on Gandhi’s remark, first claiming that the “merchant of death” was reference to Gujarat officials, but Saturday changed the stance to maintain that it was aimed at Modi.