Public sector and the Model Code of Conduct

Published : Mar 30, 2019 15:05 IST

After I checked in for flight AI 9552 from Madurai to Chennai on March 29, I casually looked at the backside of the boarding pass to see what public message Air India had printed. I was surprised to find a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in an advertisement for the “Vibrant Gujarat 2019” summit, which was held in January 2019.

On March 25, a former IPS officer, Shashi Kant, noted this election code violation in New Delhi, and had immediately tweeted questioning whether this was how the Election Commission functioned. At that time, Air India had issued an immediate clarification: initially, it maintained that these were “third party advertisements” and that it would check if these violated the model code of conduct during the elections. Soon after, Air India Spokesperson told the news agency Press trust of India that Air India had decided to withdraw immediately these boarding passes.

Four days after that announcement, it appears that Air India had not done enough. But that did not prevent an assortment of Air India officials from pinning the blame on local officials. One senior official sent this message to his friend: “An inadvertent stray card from the old stock.” The official was not speaking the truth. This correspondent had looked at a few of the cards at the boarding gate, and every single card had the image of Modi and Rupani printed on them.

It appears that the Election Commission of India had flagged the issue with Air India. The public sector company’s response, which was accessed through an official, stated: “AI had issued notice on 25.03.19 to all domestic stations to discontinue usage of boarding cards with vibrant Gujarat Advt on reverse with immediate effect. Today’s incident is apparently a human error. A show cause notice for this error has been issued to the airport manager of AI at Madurai. Today AI management has reiterated its earlier instructions and asked for confirmation from all stations regarding discontinuation of these boarding cards.”

It was only two weeks ago that the Railways withdrew tickets with Modi’s picture on them after the Trinamool Congress lodged a complaint with the Election Commission. On March 29, it was the turn of the Railways yet again to blame a local contractor for the “Main Bhi Chowkidar” tea cups. Though Modi’s pictures on hoardings of public-funded enterprises in various places have been taken down, there are still many other places where this is being done only after it is flagged repeatedly with the authorities, as it happened in Chennai on March 28.

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