Breaking: FIR filed against Dainik Jagran publishing exit poll in violation of code
Monday, February 13, 2017
The Election
Commission has finally taken cognisance of the “exit poll” conducted by the
Resource Development International and its results published by Hindi daily
Dainik Jagran, terming it a clear violation of the Representation of the People
Act and launched FIRs against the paper.
“It is in clear
violation of Section 126 A &B of the Representation of the People Act and
wilful disobedience of lawful directions of the Commission under Section 188 of
the Indian Penal Code. Reports have been sought from the the UP Chief Electoral
Officer urgently,” said an EC spokesperson.
Former CEC
N.Gopalaswamy tells The Wire Dainik Jagran can be criminally prosecuted by EC
for publishing exit polls of phase I UP elections.
During this election cycle, first it was Prannoy
Roy with revision of his probability win in Punjab from Congress to AAP. He apparently got
off without even raising a cry of public protest. Then it was Dr Praveen Patil,
5forty3 who gave real time “exit poll” results during UP’s 1st Phase
voting that projected a sweep for BJP. But next day, possibly being warned by
the EC he offered this tweet:
“We openly
apologize, if we have made any mistakes: "We never release any exit poll
numbers and only give ground assessments."
Then came the Dainik
Jagran exit polls that also projected a sweep for BJP. Strangely, the paper
also published “exit polls” for February 15th 2nd Phase
elections, which is strange as exit polls are polls after people actually voted
and here Jagran carries it in advance. A section of the media launched a fierce
campaign against Jagran led by TheWire.Because of this campaign, Jagran hastily took down the post.
Obviously, the BJP
is quite rattled by the prospect that they could face a complete whitewash in the 5
State Assembly polls and these are all desperate reactions to ward off such an eventuality. Another explaination in social media is that some time ago Dainik Jagran apparently had a public spat with Akhilesh Yadav who
did not renew Rajya Sabha membership for one of the newspaper owners and it is
speculated in social media that their act of defiance to EC rules was to curry favour the BJP for a RS seat on one hand and get even with Akhilesh on the other hand.
Legalities aside, do
such attempts to circulate fake exit polls change the outcome of elections??
Todate, there is no evidence of it doing so. Dainik Jagran had predicted a BJP win in Bihar too
with a headline 'bdlaav ki oor bihar’ and got mud on their faces. And it looks like they would not only repeat this outcome but may face criminal charges, even arrest to boot!
But a section of Social
Media is of the opinion that these efforts could hide a more sinister motive –
a desperate BJP facing 0-5 loss may even be tempted to tamper with the EVMs and
manipulation of exit polls is to make it look as they performed as per exit
poll projections.
A related article on this controversy could be found: HERE
0 comments