New Delhi, April 11
The Congress on Friday petitioned the Election Commission to register an FIR against BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi for concealing the truth about the existence of his wife on oath before disclosing it in an election affidavit two days ago, just because it could no longer be hidden under the law.

Modi wrote “Jashodaben” in the column seeking details of spouse while filing his papers as the BJP’s Vadodra candidate. He had left the same column blank in all four past affidavits when he was contesting for the Gujarat Assembly from Rajkot (2001), Maninagar (2002, 2007 and 2012).

“We don’t believe in raising personal issues. We just want people to know the facts. Concealing the truth in an affidavit is a crime for which we have demanded that Narendra Modi be booked and proceeded against criminally. The least we expect of a candidate aspiring for high offices is honesty and forthrightness,” Law Minister Kapil Sibal said when asked why the Congress was making a poll issue of Modi’s personal life.

The law the Congress has invoked against Modi is Section 125 (A) of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, which prescribes a jail term of up to six months and fine, or both, for candidates who, in election affidavits, either furnish false information or conceal information they knows to be true. It’s the latter part of the law the Congress is raking up to question Modi, who concealed the truth about his wife for 13 years since 2001 when he filed his first election affidavit.