Modi accused of using hate speech to target India’s 200m Muslims
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been accused of hate speech during a campaign rally where he called Muslims “infiltrators” who had “many children” and claimed they would take people’s hard-earned money.
The opposition accused Modi of “blatantly targeting” India’s 200 million Muslim minority with comments made while addressing voters at a speech in Rajasthan on Sunday.
India is in the midst of a general election, where Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) are seeking a third term in power. Voting will continue in phases until early June.
In his speech, Modi claimed a previous government, led by the main opposition Congress party, had said: that “Muslims have the first right over the nation’s wealth.”
The prime minister went on to add that, if Congress won this current election, people’s wealth “will be distributed among those who have more children. It will be distributed to the infiltrators.”
“Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators? Would you accept this?” Modi asked the crowd.
The comments provoked a heavy backlash from political opponents and civil society, who accused Modi of stirring up religious tensions and fuelling false conspiracies about Muslims.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the Congress party, accused Modi of hate speech and violating election rules that ban canvassing based on “communal feelings”.
In response, Congress filed a complaint to the election commission, alleging that the prime minister’s “divisive, objectionable and malicious” comments were targeted at “a particular religious community” and amounted to “blatant and direct violations of electoral laws”.
They were “far worse than any ever made by a sitting prime minister in the history of India”, the complaint added. The election commission declined to comment.
Since the BJP came to power in 2014 with a Hindu nationalist agenda, it has been accused of policies and rhetoric that target minorities, particularly Muslims, who have allegedly been subjected to rising violence and persecution both by the state and by rightwing Hindu vigilantes.
The BJP does not have a single Muslim candidate running in this election. Senior BJP figures such as Yogi Adityanath, a hardline Hindu monk who is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, have been accused of making derogatory comments towards Muslims in speeches. However, as prime minister, Modi has tended to steer clear of explicit mentions of Muslims, and has instead been accused of “dog-whistle” politics in making indirect references to single out Muslims.
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia told reporters that Modi was calling “a spade a spade” and his remarks resonated with what people thought.
Almost a billion people are registered to vote in the elections, with the first phase of voting having been held last Friday. The election is widely expected to return Modi and the BJP to power when results are counted on 4 June.
Yesterday, voting had to be rerun at 11 polling stations in the northeastern state of Manipur, which has been hit by months of ethnic clashes. Reports of violence and damage to voting machines led to authorities to declare the voting as void.
At least six instances of armed groups trying to take over polling stations were reported in the state capital Imphal, an election official said. The Congress party demanded a rerun at 47 Manipur polling stations, alleging that booths were captured and elections were rigged.