New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued a show cause notice to Congress’s Rahul Gandhi over his “panauti” and “jaibkatra” remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi made at a public rally in Barmer, Rajasthan. Gandhi must reply by 6 pm, November 25, the notice, issued in response to a complaint by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said.

The EC noted that the word “panauti” (bad omen) ex facie is prohibited under section 123(2) of the Representation of People Act under which inducement or “attempts to induce a candidate or an elector to believe that he, or any person in whom he is interested, will become or will be rendered an object of divine displeasure or spiritual censure” is considered a corrupt practice.

The EC also cited the model code of conduct under which parties and candidates must avoid criticism of other parties or their workers “based on unverified allegations or distortion”.

The EC reiterated its advisory from May in which it had rued over the “plummeting level of political discourse in the campaigning period”.

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At a public meeting in Baytu, Rajasthan, Gandhi had said that Modi made the Indian cricket team lose the final world cup match as he is a “panauti”.

”To even remotely suggest that the Prime Minister of India can be ill omen ‘panauti’ is highly reprehensible and condemnable,” the BJP said and pointed out that victory in a game is not a function of who is watching, but the strengths of the individual teams.

In the same meeting, Gandhi also said that Modi distracts the victims while someone else picks their pocket. The BJP called this “vicious abuse and personal attack”, “character assassination”, and an attempt to “mislead the public”.

To be sure, the BJP had also complained about Gandhi’s remarks that Modi takes people for a ride so that only four-five industrialists are benefitted. “I will give you an example. In the last nine years, Modi has waived off loans worth ₹14 lakh crore of India’s billionaires,” he said. The BJP in its complaint had said that Modi has not waived off any loans, and instead banks are required to make provisions for Non-Performing Assets (NPA), as mandated by the RBI. BJP claimed that the banks had recovered ₹10,16,617 crore over the last nine years. This part of the complaint has not been mentioned in the EC notice.

Gandhi’s sister and fellow Congress campaigner, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has received two show cause notices from the EC in the last one month.

The BJP had also complained against Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s comments about Modi’s caste. However, the EC has so far not issued a notice to him.