Modi calls Muslims ‘infiltrators’ who would take India’s wealth

NEW DELHI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called Muslims “infiltrators” who would take India’s wealth if his opponents gained power — unusually direct and divisive language from a leader who normally lets others do the dirtiest work of polarizing Hindus against Muslims.

Modi, addressing voters in the state of Rajasthan, referred to a remark once made by Manmohan

Singh, his predecessor from the opposition Indian National Congress party. Singh, Modi claimed, had “said that Muslims have the first right to the wealth of the nation. This means they will distribute this wealth to those who have more children, to infiltrators.”

Modi aimed his emotional appeal at women, addressing “my mothers and sisters” to say that his Congress opponents would take their gold and give it to Muslims.

Such implications — that Muslims have too many babies, that they are coming for Hindus’ wives and daughters, that their nationality as Indian is itself in doubt — are often made by representatives of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.

Modi’s use of such language himself, as he campaigns for a third term in office, raised alarm that it could inflame right-wing vigilantes who target Muslims, and it brought up questions about what had prompted his shift in communication style. Usually, Modi avoids even using the word “Muslims,” coyly finding ways to refer indirectly to India’s largest minority group, of 200 million people.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the Congress party, called Modi’s remarks “hate speech.” Asaduddin Owaisi, who represents the only national party for Muslims, lamented how “common Hindus are made to fear Muslims while their wealth is being used to enrich others.”

Tom Vadakkan, a spokesperson for the BJP, said Modi’s speech was being misinterpreted.

“This is not about our compatriots, the Muslims,” he said. Modi was talking only about “infiltrators,” according to Vadakkan.

The prime minister’s fiery oration, delivered in 100-degree heat in the town of Banswara in arid Rajasthan, contrasted with the image he presents in international contexts.

During a visit to the White House in June, Modi said there was “no question of discrimination” in India.

When he played host to the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi three months later, he chose the theme “the world is one family” (in Sanskrit, the primary liturgical language of orthodox Hinduism).

He put his own face on soft-power outreach programs such as World Yoga Day, broadcast to Times Square, using it to present a Hindu-centric India as a benign “teacher to the world.”

Campaigns that divide Hindus and Muslims can be useful in animating the hard-right Hindu base of Modi’s otherwise broadbased electorate, especially in places like Banswara, where Hindus outnumber Muslims 3-to-1.

With his remarks, Modi may have been trying to close a division that has opened among Hindus in Rajasthan over whether to support the BJP, with one prominent group holding protests over comments made by a party official.

But the prime minister’s speech was also clearly intended for a wider audience; he shared a clip on his official social media channels.

The BJP remains the favorite to win another parliamentary majority when six weeks of voting concludes on June 1 and ballots are counted three days later. Kharge, the

Congress party president, called Modi’s speech — perhaps hopefully — a sign of desperation, adding that opposition candidates must be faring well in the early stages of balloting.

Neerja Chowdhury, a columnist and the author of “How Prime Ministers Decide,” echoed Kharge, saying that, in her view, “voters are expressing their dissatisfaction much more openly this time.” The BJP is capable of a swift course correction, she added, because “they get feedback very quickly.”

Rahul Gandhi, the public face of the Congress party, said that Modi’s comments had been intended as a diversion from subjects that trouble ordinary voters, like joblessness and inflation.

That the prime minister alluded to religion at all in his speech drew complaints that he may have violated India’s election rules.

Candidates are supposed to be barred from asking for votes in the name of religion or caste. But BJP leaders regularly invoke Hindu deities during campaign rallies with impunity.