New Delhi sources have stated that if Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party thought they could cash in on the emotive appeal of the phrase 'aam aadmi' (common man) ahead of municipal corporation elections, it hadn't reckoned with the Delhi State Election Commission. On Wednesday, the panel directed Delhi government and the commissioners of the three corporations to remove or obscure within 48 hours all instances of 'aam aadmi' appearing in the names of government amenities and services.
Meanwhile the poll body had also ordered the
removal of all posters and banners displayed at government expenditure that
carried the pictures of politicians. State Election Commissioner SK Srivastava
reasoned that the term 'aam aadmi' in government nomenclature such as Aam Aadmi
Mohalla Clinic, Aam Aadmi Bypass Express Service (a passenger bus service) and
other schemes, by being associated with the ruling party, violated the model
code of conduct in force in Delhi since March 14.
The order elated BJP functionaries and Vijender Gupta, leader of the Opposition in the Delhi assembly, smirked, "AAP cannot take political advantage of the public displays now." But the ruling party retorted sharply, with AAP Delhi convener Dileep Kumar Pandey saying, "It is shocking that a constitutional body like SEC is acting as a subordinate of its political masters and is taking orders from them".
In a letter to Srivastava on Wednesday, AAP asked
him whether the poll panel will direct the authorities to also cover 'Bhartiya'
and 'janata' whenever these words appeared on government buildings and
billboards, seeing that the two words figured in BJP's name. Similarly, AAP
argued, SEC should also ban the words 'Indian' and 'national' that appear in
the full name of the Congress party.
