By  CJP Team

On November 5, 7, and 8, 2024, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) filed three separate complaints with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra, S. Chockalingam against Suresh Chavhanke, editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, for violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and the provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1951 with his inflammatory and divisive speeches delivered at various events in October 2024. These complaints highlighted Chavhanke’s ongoing use of hate speech to stoke communal tensions and manipulate public opinion during the sensitive pre-election period. On October 20, in Ahmednagar, Chavhanke made derogatory remarks against the LGBTQ+ community and falsely accused Christians of targeting the region for conversions. On October 22, at the Janata-NRC event in Karad, Satara, Chavhanke propagated baseless conspiracies about Muslim “infiltrators” and praised Myanmar’s controversial expulsion of Rohingyas and on October 24, during an event in Pimpri-Chinchwad, he referred to Muslim-majority areas as “mini-Pakistan” and “no-go zones.”

CJP’s complaints emphasized that Chavhanke’s speeches promoted Islamophobia, religious intolerance, and harmful stereotypes. By spreading dangerous narratives such as “love jihad,” “land jihad,” and baseless fears of demographic change, he sought to polarize voters along religious lines, undermining the integrity of the electoral process. CJP urged the CEO Maharashtra to take immediate action against Chavhanke to uphold the principles of free, fair, and peaceful elections, ensuring that such hate speech does not go unpunished.

  • Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune [November 7, 2024]

On November 7, 2024, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) filed a formal complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra against Suresh Chavhanke for his inflammatory and divisive speech delivered on October 24, 2024, during the Janta NRC event. In his speech, Chavhanke claimed that 10 crore “infiltrators” should be removed from India, citing alleged court support, and referred to Muslim politicians as “traitors.” He also made derogatory remarks about Muslim-majority areas in Pimpri-Chinchwad, calling them “mini-Pakistan” and “no-go zones.” This speech constitutes a clear violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), which governs the conduct of political parties and candidates during elections to ensure fairness and a peaceful electoral process. Suresh Chavhanke said that “Now where did the figure of ten crores come from? Some journalist friends will be here. Some did not come here. But those are the two Namakharams of Hyderabad, traitors. Whether they watch anything else or not. They may miss a prayer. But he never misses what Suresh Chavhanke says at 8 PM.” 

He further added that “Perhaps Hindus in India know me less. At that time, we were going from village to village. But friends I was telling you that defined. We won the court battle.”

This story was originally published in cjp.org.in. Read the full story here.