EC gives Rahul Gandhi time till Friday evening to respond to show-cause notice

The Election Commission has given Congress chief Rahul Gandhi time till Friday evening to respond to a show-cause notice issued to him over his remark that the Narendra Modi government had enacted a new law that allowed tribals to be shot at.

On Tuesday, Rahul had sought time till the weekend to respond to the notice.

Last Friday, the Congress chief had sought time till May 7 to respond to the notice, following which the EC had granted him an extension.

Citing his speech in Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh, on April 23, the commission had on May 1 issued a show-cause notice to Gandhi, highlighting a provision of the model code of conduct which bars "unverified" allegations against political opponents.

According to a broad translation of the Hindi speech available on the internet, Rahul had alleged: "Narendra Modi government has made a new law for tribals in which there is a line that says tribals can be shot at...They snatch your land, take away your jungle and water and then say that tribals can be shot at."

On Wednesday, the Congress chief tendered unconditional apology in the Supreme Court for wrongfully attributing his "chowkidar chor hai" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the apex court in the Rafale verdict. 

The three-page affidavit was filed by the Congress president after he had drawn flak from the apex court on April 30 over his earlier affidavit in which he had not directly admitted his mistake for incorrectly attributing the allegedly contemptuous remark to the top court.

Gandhi had made the remarks on April 10, the day the apex court had dismissed the Centre's preliminary objections over admissibility of certain documents for supporting the review petitions against the December 14 last year verdict in the Rafale case.