The Election Commission has given PM Narendra Modi a third clean chit. (PTI Photo) The Election Commission has given PM Narendra Modi a third clean chit. (PTI Photo)

The Election Commission Thursday gave a third clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after it found that his April 21 speech in Barmer, Rajasthan, where he had warned Pakistan saying India’s nuclear arsenal is not meant for Diwali, did not violate the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

While addressing an election rally in Barmer, Modi had said: “Bharat ne Pakistan ki dhamki se darne ki neeti ko chod diya. Yeh theek kiya na maine? Warna aaye din, ‘humare paas nuclear button hai, nuclear button hai’. Yehi kehte thhe? Humare akbaarwale bhi likthe thhe, Pakistan ke paas bhi nuclear hai. Toh humare paas kya hai, bhai, yeh Diwali ke liye rakha hai kya? (India has discarded the policy of being scared of Pakistan’s threats. I did right, didn’t I? Because every other day, they would say, ‘we have the nuclear button’. Isn’t that what they used to say? Our newspapers also wrote, ‘Pakistan, too, has a nuclear weapon’. So what do we have, is it kept for Diwali?).”

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With today’s decision, the poll watchdog has cleared three of the five Congress complaints against the Prime Minister. On Wednesday, the EC cleared the Prime Minister’s speech at Wardha under the MCC. He had appealed first-time voters by invoking the Balakot airstrikes in Latur, Maharashtra, on April 9.

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