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India opposition criticises PM Modi for anti-Muslim comments

At campaign rallies, Modi called Muslims 'infiltrators' claiming Congress will redistribute wealth to them if it won

AFP May 16, 2024

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to a crowd in Mumbai on May 15, 2024. PHOTO: AFP

India's main opposition party on Thursday condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for anti-Muslim comments in election campaign speeches that have heightened concerns over sectarian tensions in the world's biggest democracy.

Modi remains popular across much of India and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win this general election when it concludes in early June.

Since voting began last month, the 73-year-old premier has stepped up his rhetoric targeting India's main religious divide in a bid to rally voters.

He has referred in campaign rallies to Muslims as "infiltrators" and claimed the main opposition Congress party would redistribute the nation's wealth to Muslims if it won.

P. Chidambaram, a former Indian finance minister and senior lawmaker for Congress, said Thursday that Modi was playing "his usual game of dividing Hindus and Muslims".

"The world is watching and analysing the Indian prime minister's statements, and they do not bring glory to India," he added.

After Modi suggested that a former prime minister from Congress had planned for a separate "Muslim budget", the party's general secretary Jairam Ramesh condemned his statements as "nonsensical".

"This is typical Modi bombast and bogusness," he said Wednesday on social media platform X.

Since he swept to power a decade ago, Modi has sought to align India's politics more closely with its majority faith, in defiance of the country's officially secular constitution.

His cultivated image as a champion of Hinduism has made him roundly popular but has left many among the country's 200-million-plus Muslim minority uneasy about their status and anxious about their futures.

Modi on Tuesday denied stoking religious tensions in a television interview with broadcaster News18.

Read: India poll watchdog's inaction lets PM Modi commit 'brazen' violations, opposition says

"The day I start talking about Hindu-Muslim (divisions) will be the day I will lose my ability to lead a public life," Modi said.

But at a campaign rally the following day, Modi accused Congress of planning to commit "vote jihad", an implied suggestion that his opponents were rallying Muslims to vote against him.

India's poll code prohibits sectarian campaigning and opposition parties lodged a complaint about an earlier Modi speech last month with the election commission, which has yet to announce any sanctions against the premier.

Other members of Modi's party have been accused of matching his rhetoric and unfairly targeting Muslims during the election.

A BJP candidate in Hyderabad, Madhavi Latha, was widely condemned on social media Monday for demanding veiled Muslim women remove their facial coverings at a polling station so she could personally check that their appearances matched their identity documents.

Police in the southern city announced an investigation into the incident.

COMMENTS (3)

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Rebirth | 6 months ago | Reply It is time that we follow the Mexican model and ask India to realize its dream of Akhand Bharat by bringing down the Ratcliffe line. Just as the Mexicans have started to change the American demographics in their bordering states with some counties having a 100 Mexican population we must also mutually agree to bring down the Ratcliffe line. Our only task would be to change the demographics in Indian Punjab where the population is mostly opioid addicted no different than the American population that borders Mexico. The only difference is that the Hindus did to the Sikhs what the Mexicans did to the Americans to take over their land. If we can bring down the border and change the demographics in Indian Punjab by sending migrants there which would be legal once we re the same country we will have contiguity all the way to northern Delhi. Meaning that all areas from northern Delhi to modern day Pakistan will have a Muslim majority. The overall population of both countries combined would give Muslims more than 35 share of the overall population. With a religion free of casteism and Urdu being our lingua franca we can exploit Hindu linguistic and caste divisions to bring back our rule over the entire nation. We must consider deepening our ties with the Muslims of India through soft power mainly Pakistani entertainment and culture that is free of Lollywood and Mujra associated acts that have plagued our prime time TV slots. We must also continue to demand a Muslim political leadership to represent 25 of the overall population till we help Hindus realize their Akhand Bharat dream. The next election is the closest we ll ever get to take back what we lost in the 18th and 19th centuries. If the Mexicans are relentlessly trying to take back what they lost in the 1850s for centuries now why should we be any less interested to take back the open-air toilet that we ruled for 1 000 years We must follow the Bunya Pandit model of flattery to convince the Hindus we wish to live under their rule. As with their Prakriti cousins in Pakistan we must continue to boost their artificially inflated egos rooted in self-deception that they are far more developed than we are and hence we need to depend on them for economic prosperity. The reverse Brahmin strategy is the way forward and if anyone disagrees ask them what Deen i ilahi was.

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