New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) today (Mar 27, 2004) decided to get tough on complaints about unfair television advertisements by political parties and asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to take "appropriate action" against ads that are "slanderous in nature" in violative of the advertisement code.

"The commission has directed direct the secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to take appropriate action under the cable TV network rules, where there are adequate provisions to prevent any advertisements from being aired, which are violative of code," EC spokesman A N Jha told reporters.

In reply to a spate of questions on whether the commission's directive amounted to a prohibition on such ads, he read out relevant portions of the cable TV network rules, which gives power to the Government to "regulate" and "prohibit" offensive ads.

The commission's decision comes in the wake of Congress' complaint to it about a "slanderous" advertisement on some TV channels raising Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue. The party last week particularly cited an advertisement purportedly issued by one Kamakshi Educational Society and complained it sought "to incite violence" and was against "good taste and decency".