Clipping EC wings: UPA chickens out

A day after media reported about a government move to clip the wings of Election Commission on the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by giving it a statutory backing, the UPA government seems to have developed cold feet on the issue.

The Group of Ministers on corruption in its meeting on Wednesday did not touch the controversial issue and confined itself to the Public Procurement Bill and the report of a committee on utilisation of natural resources.

Union ministers Kapil Sibal and V Narayanasamy said the matter was not discussed by the GoM as it was not in the terms of reference . But none sounded convincing as they put up a weak defence.

“It was felt that development projects get stalled during elections which keeps happening each year. We were not talking about the general MCC with regard to conduct of candidates etc,” said Sibal.