Supreme Court, Election Commission must take cognisance of Salman Khurshid's remarks: BJP

The BJP on Friday termed "very dangerous" External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's comments questioning the role of the Supreme Court and Election Commission and said the two institutions must take suo motu cognisance of it.

BJP also accused Khurshid and the Congress of denigrating constitutional institutions and charged them with having an "undemocratic mindset".

"What Salman Khurshid has said is very dangerous and the court and the Election Commission must take cognisance of this," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

He said many others Congress leaders have echoed this mindset and have "denigrated" all constitutional bodies like CAG, CVC, PAC or JPC.
"They have denigrated all the institutions," he charged.

"What Salman Khurshid is speaking is not an isolated case and Courts and EC should take suo motu notice of it," he demanded.

Speaking on the 'Challenges of Democracy in India' at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, Khurshid had said that Election Commission's Model Code of Conduct made it difficult for parties to win elections.

"The recent instructions that we received from them (EC) interestingly are that our manifesto must be certain that it does not offer the building of roads, because promise of building roads distorts democratic decision-making... You should also not offer drinking water because that distorts decision-making," the senior Congress leader said.

In an apparent reference to the Supreme Court judgement disqualifying convicted lawmakers, Khurshid had said it was "a judge-made law".

He had also said that the "broad philosophical approach" of Election Commission guidelines appears to be that "you should do or say nothing that wins you an election".