On the day of the sari stampede, the BJP’s official line was that there was ‘‘no need to politicise’’ the event and that it happened every year. Now, with its senior leader Lalji Tandon accused of bribery, the party has distanced itself from his birthday function where saris were distributed leading to a stampede that killed 22 women and three children. In its reply to the Election Commission’s show-cause notice, the party has said that it was neither aware of Tandon’s plans to distribute saris nor had it given any consent nor pooled in resources for the April 12 event. Election Commission sources said that the BJP is understood to have claimed that if it had prior knowledge of Tandon’s birthday plans, it would have asked the leader not to distribute saris. The BJP reply was sent to the EC this morning after an inter-party discussions on the issue. Said party chief Venkaiah Naidu: ‘‘We have given our response.it will not be proper for me to let it out before hand.all the same the party had nothing to do with the incident.’’ The party said that Tandon had independently organised the function, which was an annual ritual with him. It has told the EC that Tandon along with ‘‘sadhus and sants’’ had been organising various social events including cleaning of the river Gomti. On April 16, the EC had issued a show-cause notice to the BJP for a prima facie violation of the model code of conduct. And the party had been asked to reply within seven days on why action should not be taken against it for violating the model code by distributing ‘‘largesse (free saris) to the voters’’ during the election period. Election Commission officials said that the BJP, in its reply, has argued that independent actions of an individual were being linked to the party. This practice, the BJP said, was ‘‘draconian’’ and violated the basic principles of the parliamentary system of democracy. At the same time, the party, according to sources, said that there was ‘‘no inducement to vote’’ at the Tandon function. According to BJP, charity on a birthday is not bribery as there was no appeal made to voters during the function. In an attempt to back its claim, the BJP has cited sections of judgments of the Supreme Court and Kerala High Court in a case where the Congress had ‘‘mass-fed’’ people on the day of immersion of Rajiv Gandhi’s ashes in 1991. Although that function had been organised by the Congress, the event was called an act of ‘‘mourning’’ and not inducement to vote.
