While complaints have been registered with the ECI, asking for arrests and suspensions of PM Modi’s campaign, the Election Commission has not formally addressed the situation and neither has taken any actions against it. His remark on Muslims as “inflirators” has incited much angst within the Muslim communities across the globe as well.
“When they were in power, they said Muslims have first right over resources. They will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children,” Modi told a crowd of supporters. “Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators? Would you accept this?” he said of India’s Muslim population, which consists of around 230 million people.
Global Media houses on His Election Speech
Speaking to the TIME Magazine, Executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) the United States’ largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization said, “It is unconscionable, but not surprising, that far-right Hindutva leader Narendra Modi would target Indian Muslims with a hateful and dangerous diatribe despite his role as the leader of a nation with such a diverse religious heritage.”
Anti-Muslim hate speech has been soaring in India, with a recent report by the Washington-based research group India Hate Lab recording 668 cases in 2023, the magazine reported.
Another global news media, the NYT in its report noted that the “unusually direct and divisive” remark came from “a leader who normally lets others do the dirtiest work of polarizing Hindus against Muslims.” The shift in tone of his communication style has raised questions on what had happened. He often finds ways of referring to the minority group without directly using the word “Muslims”. His speech was in high contrast to the “image he presents in international contexts.”
France24, a French state run news agency, has also criticized the PM on this issue, calling it an “ugly speech” but “no surprise”. In an interview with Irfan Nooruddin, a professor of Indian politics at Georgetown University in Washington, it has coyly exposed PM Modi’s campaign strategy and called out his two-faced rhetoric on Muslims.
“On the world stage, Mr. Modi likes to talk about India’s democratic credentials, about its value as a partner to countries like France and the United States in particular, as each of them now seeks alternatives to China,” the professor said. The outright violation of the election commission- a supposedly “neutral umpire”- rules by “using images of Lord Ram in the campaign” has been criticized as well.
“The Indian PM turned to old anti-Muslim tropes in an election rally, potentially signalling a shift in his campaign strategy,” Al Jazeera wrote.
“India’s election code bars parties and politicians from engaging in speeches and campaigns that aim to perpetuate religious or caste differences. But independent watchdogs and activists have long complained that election officials act too slowly, if at all, especially when cases involve powerful officials in the government,” it said.
It further wrote, “Many leaders in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in India’s Hindu-majoritarian right have long portrayed the country’s 200 million Muslims effectively as outsiders. Muslim asylum seekers and refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar are in particular targeted as “infiltrators”.
The election battle in the country has turned pretty ugly, enough to prompt global media houses to cover the issue. While this might not trouble the Indians, it poses a big question on the narrative played by the Indian Politicians during the course of election and the extent to which their speeches turn controversial. Indians want a future with a foundation laid on the principles mentioned in the preamble- sovereign, socialist, democratic, republic and secular -but the campaign trail speaks otherwise.
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