Forty-seven retired civil servants have written to the chief election commissioner Sunil Arora, urging him to stall the release a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi till May 23. The Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases in the country from April 11 to May 19, with results on May 23. The retired civil servants said that the release of the film would violate the Model Code of Conduct. The film is scheduled to release on April 5, less than a week before the first phase of the elections on April 11.
On Monday, a Congress delegation had called on the EC officials to urge them to stall the film’s release. Last week, the DMK had approached the EC with the same demand. The Opposition parties have been repeatedly pointing out that the release of the biopic just ahead of the elections is political.
The letter says, “You will appreciate that such a film would create enormous electoral mileage for the Prime Minister and the party in power. It is, therefore, necessary to examine whether the release of this biopic after the announcement of elections and the coming into force of the MCC [Model Code of Conduct] is consonant with the principles of a free and fair election. The same principle would apply to any similar biopic on any other candidate in the forthcoming elections, since news reports mention a biopic on the president of the Indian National Congress, Shri Rahul Gandhi [though there is no mention of the date of release]”.
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