New Delhi: The Election Commission Thursday directed the Centre to immediately stop delivering bulk WhatsApp messages to people under the “Viksit Bharat Sampark” initiative to highlight the government’s achievements. The direction was issued to the Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, after the Commission received complaints about the matter.
“The move is a part of a series of decisions taken by the Commission to ensure a level-playing field,” the Commission said. Asking the government to ensure there is “no further delivery” of the bulk WhatsApp messages to people, the Commission sought an “immediate” compliance report on the matter from the ministry.
The ministry had informed the Commission that the messages along with a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi were sent before the Model Code of Conduct came into force on March 16 with the announcement of Lok Sabha poll schedule. “... due to system architecture and network limitations it is possible that some letters have a delayed delivery,” the ministry said in a communication to the Commission.
