Narendra Modi’s communally provocative statements are important in spreading an anti-Muslim animus among the electorate, especially among Dalits whom the BJP fears might vote along with the minorities against the BJP
In his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a reporter “the day I do Hindu-Muslim, I will be unworthy of public life” and it was his “resolve” that he “will not do Hindu-Muslim”. The very next day, electioneering in Nashik, the shrill communal rhetoric was back. On May 15, Modi told an election rally in Nashik that the Congress had drawn up a plan to reserve 15 per cent of the Union Budget for Muslims.
He claimed that the Manmohan Singh regime could not implement it because of the opposition by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “But now they (the Congress) are bent on reintroducing their agenda. … If the Congress is elected they will make two budgets to be divided between a ‘Hindu Budget’ and a ‘Muslim Budget’. I will not allow quotas based on religion,” he said. One must remember that such opportunist doublespeak is the trademark of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
A different speech for every outreach. One day RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat seeks a review of reservations in jobs (September 2015) and at another moment Bhagwat claims that they have always supported reservations (April 2024)….
https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/what-is-behind-modis-campaign-doublespeak-3026646
*******************************************************
Poll rhetoric threatens India’s plurality
Cheques and Imbalances: The taming of the Election Commission of India
Nayantara Sahgal speaks to Ajoy Bose: ‘We have a nightmare which is worse than the Emergency’
EMERGENCY Archive / When the Supreme Court struck down Habeas Corpus
Suhas Palshikar: There are many ways India mirrors the Emergency now