The Times of India
Religion in poll symbols? We can do nothing: SC
24 Mar 2009, 0108 hrs IST, Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN
NEW DELHI: Many an election symbol in India, where religion is intrinsic to the way of life, can be associated either with God or his elements.
Can these symbols be used by political parties without being accused of wooing voters in the name of religion, which is a grave electoral malpractice?
This question came up before the Supreme Court on Monday as a PIL filed by ‘Youthmen Hindu Association’ questioned the use of the `rising sun' symbol used by DMK in Tamil Nadu.
Though ironically DMK did not believe in the existence of God, it was accused by PIL petitioner's counsel K Biju of falling foul of Section 123(3) of the Representation of People Act which prohibited wooing of voters by means of religion or religious symbols.
He argued that sun, right from the vedic age, has been worshipped by Hindus as a God and the DMK's election symbol could "exploit sentiments of illiterate and poor people". He demanded an immediate freeze of the symbol.
Far from being impressed with this argument, a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam chided the petitioner for coming to the court 57 years after the `rising sun' was allotted to DMK as its election symbol.
Before the threat of dismissal forced the counsel to withdraw the petition, the Bench said there are at least 15 to 20 election symbols like tree, cow, moon etc, which could be classified as having some link or the other to the religion. "Does this mean every such symbol needs to be banned," the Bench asked.
The symbols which have some religious connotation are -- elephant which is the election symbol of BSP, lotus (BJP), bow and arrow (JMM), conch (BJD). Apart from the national and state parties, there are 1,000 registered unrecognised parties in India, the latter being asked to choose from 59 free symbols.
Though the counsel repeated his arguments basing it on Section 123(3) of RP Act, he did not mention the proviso to the section, which read: "Provided that no symbol allotted under this Act to a candidate shall be deemed to be a religious symbol or a national symbol for the purpose of this clause."
A similar unsuccessful attempt was made by one Shaheen Parvez last week before a Bench headed by CJI to challenge the `lotus' symbol allotted to BJP. Her contention was that lotus was a national symbol and no political party could make use of it.
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