EDITORIAL: Akin to his two previous general election campaigns India’s far-right Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking a third consecutive term, is using anti-Muslim hate speech to energise his Hindu extremist support base.
Addressing an election rally on April 21 in Rajasthan, he invoked fear among voters claiming that if the Congress party adhered to its election manifesto wealth of Indians would be distributed to “infiltrators”, generally viewed as a reference to Bangladeshi Muslims who have settled in eastern Indian states, and against whom his government brought in the highly controversial discriminatory law, the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act.
The ‘infiltrators’ remark, though, implied that all of India’s over 200 million Muslims were outsiders as he went on to add, “and those who have more children”, suggesting that due to their higher birth rates, India’s Muslim population would overtake that of its majority Hindus.
Some ultra-nationalist racist politicians in certain Western countries do make provocative statements against non-white immigrants, but for the leader of ‘the world’s largest democracy’ to propagate a hate filled false narrative against a minority community, to put it lightly, is alarming.
His comments have drawn widespread criticism from opposition parties as well as civil society members. In a letter to the Election Commission more than 2,200 concerned citizens have urged action against Modi over his speech, terming it a “dangerous and a direct attack on Muslims of India”, who have lived in the country for centuries.
Furthermore, said the letter, it disturbed the sentiments of millions of constitution respecting citizens of India. There would be no need for anyone to remind the electoral body of its responsibilities had it not compromised itself, like some other institutions have.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has also lodged a complaint with the Delhi police commissioner, saying that Modi had “intentionally and strategically” employed anti-Muslim tropes in order to convey an impression to the Hindu community that their property was under threat, particularly gold and mangal sutra of women would be distributed among the Muslims by the Congress party. “It is utterly illegal to appeal for votes using hate speech as the Prime Minister has done,” asserted the CPI-M. Considering the prevailing environment, all protests will be ignored.
The Sangh Parivar ruling that country since 2014 has been gradually changing India. In the largest population state of UP where Muslims comprise over 18 percent of its inhabitants, in the 2004 election they were represented in the Parliament by 10 MPs; the number came down to six in 2009. In the outgoing Lok Sabha, that state did not showcase even a single Muslim MP.
For the election presently underway, the main opposition party, Congress, too tried to avoid taking risk. In the two other western states, Rajasthan and Gujarat, for instance, it did not nominate any Muslim candidate.
However, it along with other parties, including the Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, and CPI (M) has fielded a significant number of Muslim candidates in various states. It remains to be seen if his anti-Muslim rhetoric will help Modi return to office for third time. Needless to say, India has already regressed immensely under Modi.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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