Chief Election Officer issues stern warning to the producers
Mumbai/Nagpur: The television daily soap operas “Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hai” and “Tujse Hai Rabta” have been found violating the Code of Conduct with contents that may prove beneficial to a political party.
Taking serious view of violation of Code of Conduct, the Office of the Chief Election Officer has directed the producers of “Bhabhiji Ghar par Hai” and “Tujse Hai Rabta” to exclude the objectionable content and to ensure that the episodes containing such objectionable content is not available on any type of electronic and social media.
They are also instructed to seek prior approval from the competent authority if any such content is existing in the nature of advertisement before telecasting such episodes of the soap operas. The producers of the daily soaps are strictly warned to meticulously comply the provisions in the Model Code of Conduct and other directives of the Election Commission of India.
The Congress party had lodged a complaint to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer that the episodes of daily soap ” Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hai ” telecast on ‘And Television Channel’ on April 4 and 5 2019 and “Tujse Hai Rabta ” telecast on Zee Television Channel on April 2, 2019 contained the content related to the various government schemes and the leadership of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Acting on the complaint by the Congress party, the office of the Chief Election Officer issued show cause notice to the Benifer Kohli and Sanjay Kohli, of the production House “Edit Two Productions” the producers of daily soap ” Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hai ” and Sonali Potnis and Amir Jafar of “Full House Media” the producers of “Tujse Hai Rabta” seeking explanation as to why action should not be initiated for violation of the Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha elections.
On the basis of the explanation offered by the producers of these two production houses and the perusal of the shooting of the concerned episodes of these daily soap serials, it came to the notice that the contents of the daily soap serial advertized a particular political party and its leaders which can unduly influence the voters.
Similarly this content was not got pre certified. Hence the model code of conduct for the lok sabha elections was violated due to the content in the aforesaid episodes of these daily soap serials.
Considering the aforesaid facts, the Additional Chief Election Officer Dilip Shinde directed the exclusion of the objectionable content from the concerned episodes of the daily soap serials and to ensure that the concerned episodes containing the objectionable contents are not available in any media. It has been directed not to telecast any content which may be beneficial to any particular political party or its candidates, during the period till the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls is in force. The producers of these daily soaps are strictly warned to get the content pre certified before the advertising the same and strictly comply the provisions in the Model Code of Conduct and other directives of the Election Commission of India.
