The Election Commission of India on Thursday issued a showcause notice to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “panauti” (bad omen) and likening him to a pickpocket during his election campaign speech in Barmer, Rajasthan, on Wednesday.

Rahul has been given time till Saturday evening to provide his explanation and show cause why action should not be taken against him by the Election Commission under the Model Code of Conduct.

The showcause notice was issued to Rahul on the basis of a complaint filed by the BJP on Wednesday itself. In its complaint, the BJP had said: “Comparing a Prime Minister to a “jaibkatra” (pickpocket) and ‘panauti’ is most unbecoming of any senior leader and is a symptom of plummeting levels of political discourse.

The ECI notice also includes portions from various court. In particular, the commission has cited the Supreme Court order in the Subramaniam Swamy Vs Union of India case of 2016 in which it was said: “If freedom of speech and expression is protected by Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution, the right to reputation is also considered to be an inextricable part of the right to life protected by Article 21 and balancing these two rights is a constitutional necessity.”

The EC reminded Rahul that the Model Code of Conduct prohibits leaders from making unverified allegations against political rivals.

The EC notice said the expression “panauti” ex-facie falls in the equity of the prohibition of Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, dealing with corrupt practices.

Clause 2, sub-section (ii) of Section 123 states that any person who induces or attempts to induce a candidate or an elector to believe that he, or any person in whom he is interested, will become or will be rendered an object of divine displeasure or spiritual censure, shall be deemed to interfere with the free exercise of the electoral right of such a candidate or elector, the notice reminded Rahul.

The Congress had last week accused Modi of delivering a hate speech in Rajasthan and urged the Election Commission to take action against him for asking voters to press the “lotus” button as if they’re awarding the “death sentence” to the Congress.

The Congress has often flagged what it perceives as poll code violations by the Prime Minister and Union home minister Amit Shah in particular, but the number of times it has approached the EC with complaints against them has come down considerably this election season. “It is an exercise in futility as, in our experience, the Election Commission of India does not even issue notice to Modi or Shah,” a Congress office-bearer told The Telegraph.

A case in point is a complaint the Congress filed against Shah for a communal speech last month. There was no action on the complaint. During the Chattisgarh election campaign, the EC took cognisance of a Congress complaint against Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The same day the EC also sent a notice to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

What the Congress has been doing more of late is to flag Model Code of Conduct violations by the top two in the BJP and say the EC should take cognisance as was the case when the Prime Minister announced the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana for another five years during the Chhattisgarh campaign.