The election season brings out the worst instincts of political parties nurtured on exclusivist ideology. The higher the political stakes, the murkier the campaign gets. The standard of discourse in the ongoing election campaign has hit a new low with Prime Minister Narendra Modi making highly objectionable remarks against the Muslim community while addressing a poll rally in Rajasthan’s Banswara.
He warned that the Congress could distribute the nation’s wealth among “infiltrators and “those who have more children”, a reference to Muslims. Campaign rhetoric cannot get any worse than this; blatantly defamatory, false and dangerously divisive. Coming from a man who has been twice elected PM of India this gets worse.
Bracketing the Muslim minority with “ghuspaithiye (infiltrators)” and using stereotypical descriptions like “jinke zyada bachche hain (those who have more children) is quite unbecoming of a leader holding the highest elected position in a democratic and secular country. This is simply not done. Positioning an entire community as villains is the lowest form of vote-garnering tactic. Modi’s speech does grave disservice to his high office. Obviously, he was countering former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks in 2006 on the minorities, having the “first claim on public resources.” No doubt, Singh’s prescription was highly controversial and should not form the basis for any public policy because the nation’s resources belong to all sections of the people equally, irrespective of their caste, creed and religion. By raking up an old observation of the former Prime Minister and giving it a mischievous twist, Modi has taken the campaign rhetoric to a new low, using the appeasement tool that he so often accuses the Congress of.