Faced with a political controversy over its stand seeking a ban on opinion polls, Congress today struck a cautious note, saying it had merely endorsed EC's views even as various party leaders slammed these surveys as being a "racket", "farcical" and "manipulated".
Reading from a bunch of letters from Election Commission (EC), party spokesperson Meem Afzal said, "Since (today) morning, there is an attempt to show that Congress is opposing opinion polls.
"That is wrong. We did not say anything on our own. Of course, we have given our opinion... Our party fully endorses the EC view. So, we have given a view when an opinion was sought... We have not written a letter on our own. We have just replied," he added.
Although Congress did not say that opinion polls were being manipulated, such abuse was possible and that was also the view of EC, he said.
"It is wrong to accuse Congress of demanding it (ban) when EC, which conducts elections, is saying all this. We have only endorsed EC's opinion," Afzal said, maintaining that the party's view had been "consistent" throughout that opinion polls were something doubtful.
Party general secretary Digvijay Singh, however, minced no words in slamming opinion polls, saying "These have become a farce. They should be banned altogether. The kind of complaints, information that I have got, show that anybody can pay and get a survey as desired."
Wondering how a few thousand people could predict election trends for a country of 1.2 billion people, he said, "It has become a racket. So many groups have sprung up."
Union Minister Rajiv Shukla, speaking separately, said that opinion polls were also at times "manipulated" and, thus, the party had done the right thing by having opposed it.
At the AICC briefing, Afzal said opinion polls do affect the popular opinion and were a "sort of burden" on democratic rights.
To hammer home his point, he also quoted from the EC letter to parties stating that there could be several manipulated opinion polls which could impact the voting pattern.
Afzal also pointed out that when EC had convened a meeting of political parties to elicit their views on prohibiting or restricting opinion and exit polls during elections in 2004, political parties had "unanimously" agreed that the results of such surveys should not be published before the closing of all phases of elections.
Ahead of Assembly elections in five states in December this year, EC had again sought the views of the political parties on whether to ban opinion polls after the Centre earlier asked it to hold fresh consultations on the matter.
In a letter dated October 4, EC asked various recognised national and state-level political parties to give their views on the issue by October 21. It then sent a reminder on October 25 asking the parties to respond by a fresh deadline of November 4.
In a written reply to EC on October 30, Congress said it "fully endorses the views of the Election Commission of India to restrict publication and dissemination of opinion polls during election (time).
"In fact, opinion polls during elections are neither scientific nor is there any transparent process for such polls," Congress said in its official response to EC.
"Our leaders have always said that we do not have faith in it (opinion polls). We always said they were doubtful," he added.
Countering the Congress demand for a ban on opinion polls, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said that any such restriction was neither constitutionally permissible nor desirable.
Opinion polls are an element of free speech, Jaitley said, while maintaining that only losers demanded a ban on them.
Congress, however, rejected BJP's charge that it was opposed to opinion polls as it was "scared" of Narendra Modi, since these surveys were predicting an edge for BJP.
At present, there is a ban on opinion polls starting 48 hours before voting.
Reading from a bunch of letters from Election Commission (EC), party spokesperson Meem Afzal said, "Since (today) morning, there is an attempt to show that Congress is opposing opinion polls.
"That is wrong. We did not say anything on our own. Of course, we have given our opinion... Our party fully endorses the EC view. So, we have given a view when an opinion was sought... We have not written a letter on our own. We have just replied," he added.
Although Congress did not say that opinion polls were being manipulated, such abuse was possible and that was also the view of EC, he said.
"It is wrong to accuse Congress of demanding it (ban) when EC, which conducts elections, is saying all this. We have only endorsed EC's opinion," Afzal said, maintaining that the party's view had been "consistent" throughout that opinion polls were something doubtful.
Party general secretary Digvijay Singh, however, minced no words in slamming opinion polls, saying "These have become a farce. They should be banned altogether. The kind of complaints, information that I have got, show that anybody can pay and get a survey as desired."
Wondering how a few thousand people could predict election trends for a country of 1.2 billion people, he said, "It has become a racket. So many groups have sprung up."
Union Minister Rajiv Shukla, speaking separately, said that opinion polls were also at times "manipulated" and, thus, the party had done the right thing by having opposed it.
At the AICC briefing, Afzal said opinion polls do affect the popular opinion and were a "sort of burden" on democratic rights.
To hammer home his point, he also quoted from the EC letter to parties stating that there could be several manipulated opinion polls which could impact the voting pattern.
Afzal also pointed out that when EC had convened a meeting of political parties to elicit their views on prohibiting or restricting opinion and exit polls during elections in 2004, political parties had "unanimously" agreed that the results of such surveys should not be published before the closing of all phases of elections.
Ahead of Assembly elections in five states in December this year, EC had again sought the views of the political parties on whether to ban opinion polls after the Centre earlier asked it to hold fresh consultations on the matter.
In a letter dated October 4, EC asked various recognised national and state-level political parties to give their views on the issue by October 21. It then sent a reminder on October 25 asking the parties to respond by a fresh deadline of November 4.
In a written reply to EC on October 30, Congress said it "fully endorses the views of the Election Commission of India to restrict publication and dissemination of opinion polls during election (time).
"In fact, opinion polls during elections are neither scientific nor is there any transparent process for such polls," Congress said in its official response to EC.
"Our leaders have always said that we do not have faith in it (opinion polls). We always said they were doubtful," he added.
Countering the Congress demand for a ban on opinion polls, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said that any such restriction was neither constitutionally permissible nor desirable.
Opinion polls are an element of free speech, Jaitley said, while maintaining that only losers demanded a ban on them.
Congress, however, rejected BJP's charge that it was opposed to opinion polls as it was "scared" of Narendra Modi, since these surveys were predicting an edge for BJP.
At present, there is a ban on opinion polls starting 48 hours before voting.
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