New Delhi: Terming as "disturbing" the Election Commission order banning Narendra Modi`s close aide Amit Shah, accused of making hate speeches, from campaigning in Uttar Pradesh, BJP on Friday urged the poll body to review its order and give him a hearing in the interest of natural justice.
BJP said the order raised "disturbing" questions as Shah has been given time till tomorrow to reply to the EC`s show cause over his `revenge` remarks.
The opposition party also objected to Shah being equated with UP minister and senior SP leader Azam Khan against whom UP authorities have not initiated action for his alleged hate speeches.
"BJP would respectfully urge the EC to review this order and we trust that an appropriate hearing and consideration shall be given to the reply to the show cause to be filed by Shah within the time stipulated by the Commission," senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told PTI.
He said that without even awaiting the response to the notice, such a punitive order has been issued which "prima facie is in the violation of the principle of natural justice".
Cracking the whip against Shah and Khan, the Election Commission today banned them from holding public meetings, processions or roadshows in Uttar Pradesh and asked authorities to initiate criminal proceedings against them.
The EC also directed the UP Chief Secretary to ensure no act of commission or omission is resorted to by Shah and Khan that can affect public tranquillity and law and order.
Prasad said BJP has gone through the entire text of the speech made by Shah and "strongly feels that Shah has not spoken anything which is in violation of the Model Code".
He claimed the entire tenor of the EC order suggests that the Commission is "genuinely angry" with the "biased" attitude of the UP administration and the government machinery in refusing to take action against Azam Khan, filing any FIR against him, or taking any other action to prevent him from continuing his "undesirable" activities.
"The well-founded anger and grievance of the EC against the UP government for deliberately sheltering the activities of Azam Khan, which is being continued with alarming regularity, cannot be extended to prevent Shah from undertaking his most bona fide legal and constitutional right to campaign for his party, being the in charge of (party affairs) in UP," Prasad said.
Shah had landed in a major controversy for saying the coming general election was an opportunity to seek "revenge for the insult" inflicted during the riots in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh last year.
