From the Urdu Press: ‘Nitish shrunk, from INDIA face to NDA shadow’, ‘EC’s order to BJP, Cong too little, too late’

The Lok Sabha elections are winding down, with the remaining 57 seats set to vote in the seventh and final phase on June 1. Keeping the eye on the ball over the last two months in the peak of summer, the Urdu dailies have started turning their focus to June 4, when the votes will be counted and results declared. What lies in store on the other side of the D-Day for the country and its diverse people — this is the key theme being flagged by the dailies for coverage and analysis.

Referring to the Election Commission (EC)’s order asking BJP president J P Nadda to convey to his party’s star campaigners to “refrain from utterances along religious/communal lines” besides asking Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to tell his key campaigners to not spread the “false impression that the Constitution may be abolished”, the Hyderabad-based Siasat, in its editorial on May 23, says that the violations of electoral laws and code by various contenders have been going on with impunity since the Lok Sabha election process got underway two months ago. “The poll discourse and rally speeches plummeted to a new low, damaging the country’s secular fabric. Attempts were made to drive a wedge between different communities and spread enmity. Hate speeches were unleashed against the Muslim community in various ways, from calling them ‘infiltrators’ and ’jihadis’ to ‘those who have more children’ and other names,” the daily writes, stating that the BJP has been the “main violator” in this regard. “Several remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during their campaigning were unfortunate.”

The editorial points out that multiple complaints had been lodged with the EC over such contravention of the poll rules