EC to look into urgency of Modi's address to nation

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India held an "internal consultation" on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation on India successfully testing an anti-satellite missile on Wednesday morning.

According to senior officials, the poll panel would seek an "active transcript" of the Prime Minister's speech from the government immediately and look into the "urgency" of the address. The timing of the test, conducted at 11.16am on Wednesday, and the announcement by Modi, an hour later, has come under question with several Opposition parties alleging that it was done only for political mileage.

The Prime Minister had tweeted at 11.23am that he had an important announcement to make to the nation. There are indications that the Election Commission was taken by surprise with the announcement, made just a fortnight before the start of the Lok Sabha election.

Sources in the poll panel said the issues related to national security and disaster management do not fall under the ambit of the model code of conduct. "The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had met. Decisions taken by it and issues such as disaster management do not fall under the model code of conduct and require no prior nod," a functionary said.