Outrage Over PM Modi’s Communally Divisive Narrative

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has yet again delivered a hate- filled speech against Muslims while campaigning for his party in Rajasthan’s Banswara on Sunday, April 21. It was indeed a well-scripted and not an ‘off the cuff’ speech aimed at polarising the electorate on religious lines and consolidate the votes of a particular community in the favour of his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP.

Modi also made a shocking remark that ‘mangalasutras’, gold ornaments, worn by Hindu married women and the landed property and other precious material possessions of “mothers and sisters” would be appropriated by Opposition parties after they get elected to office and those would be distributed among “infiltrators” (read Muslims).

‘Chief Craftsman of Hate,

The venomous narrative with a clear design to cause division along religious persuasions of the people in the midst of general elections has outraged the country, reminding one of India Today magazine’s cover story of January 6, 2003, describing Modi as “a craftsman of hate” who  “divides and dominates.”

Those words were used following the Gujarat riots of 2002, by S. Prasanna Rajan, who wrote that people like Modi  “….have always needed an enemy, within and without: the bogeyman who can mobilise, unify and, most effectively, divide. They are craftsmen of enlarged expectations and of hyperactive hate”.

In targeting Muslims in his election speech in Banswara , Modi was playing out every word of that India Today cover story. What he said forms the pattern established by him to set a divisive narrative.

Modi, who till recently was appealing to BJP leaders and cadre to reach out to Pasmanda Muslims, claiming that all his programmes and policies were framed for citizens of India, regardless of their religious identities, is now deviously using Hindu-Muslim binaries for targeting Muslims.  

Distorting Manmohan Singh’s Remarks  

In this context, Modi also deliberately revisited former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 18-year-old speech in which Singh had said that suffering sections of the population, such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, children, women, Muslims and other minorities should have the first right over resources of the nation. He gave a diabolical interpretation that Singh, at the cost of others, mostly the Hindus, gave primacy to Muslims to corner the nation’s wealth and accordingly pursued politics and adopted governance strategy for their favour.

Violations of Model Code of Conduct and Law

Such a communal n flowing narrative flowing from the PM’s election speech for the purpose of mobilising votes also constitutes a flagrant violation of the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct which, according to the Supreme Court, has the force of law. It is also violative of several sections of the Representation of People’s (RP) Act, 1951, which forbids the leaders campaigning during elections and candidates aspiring to get elected to ask for votes in the name of religion.

In fact, it has been held by the judiciary that any appeal on the ground of religion and use of religious symbols for votes is a 'corrupt practice' under the RP Act. So, it can be interpreted that Prime Minister Modi, as per extant law and convention, has indulged in a corrupt practice.

Contrast Modi Speech with BJP’s Mahesh Sharma’s Apology to Muslims

It is rather curious that the Prime Minister scripted a planned polarised agenda in his speech on Sunday, while on the same day, BJP candidate Mahesh Sharma, seeking election for a third term from Gautam Buddh Nagar parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, went to Asfabaad Chandpura in Sikandrabad, where 4,000 Muslim families are residing. In 2019 general elections, he had won with an impressive margin but got only 17 votes in from Asfabaad. Sharma apologised to people there and said, “I accept the mistake made by me and my party”. “We didn’t come here,” he added, “thinking it’s a Muslim-majority area, and in return got only 17 votes last time”. Then he stated, “But today, I have come here to break the wall and look for your support.” He went on to prove his credentials as someone who stayed in Jama Masjid area, studied in Zakir Hussain College and “never nursed animosity” toward Muslims. He pleaded for forgiveness for the mistakes committed by him and his party, BJP.

It is ironical that a BJP MP said that he felt guilty of the acts of commission and omission vis-a-vis Muslims by him and his party, which stands in contrast to Prime Minister Modi’s Banswara hate speech targeting Muslims.

Silence of Election Commission

Tragically, the Election Commission, after remaining silent for so long, has declined to comment on the complaints against PM’s hate-filled speech.  On the other side, it has only issued notices to some Opposition leaders for their alleged violation of the model code of conduct. Prima facie some of those violations pale into insignificance in the context of the loathsome utterances of the PM on Muslims.

The silence of the Election Commission on the matter creates an impression that it lacks courage to deal with violations committed by PM and proves true B R Ambedkar’s apprehensions expressed in the Constituent Assembly, that in the absence of any constitutional provision preventing the government of the day to appoint unfit persons as Election Commissioners, they might “come under the thumb of the executive”. The categorical imperative is to appeal to the electorate to defeat such divisive leaders and their parties in elections to save democracy, Constitution and idea of India.

Gandhi’s Appeal to Vote for Those Upholding Hindu-Muslim Unity

It is in this context, my article “What Kind of Political Candidates Did Gandhi Hope Voters Would Support”  published in NewsClick in 2021, dealt with the central theme of Gandhi’s 1925 appeal to voters to elect those candidates who, among others, firmly believed in the unity of  Hindus, Muslim, Parsis, Christians  and Jewish and eschewed division based on religion.

The time has come to defeat those who fan such a division and elect those with credentials to uphold religious pluralism.

S N Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K R Narayanan. The views are personal.