Modi made 110 Islamophobic speeches during election campaign: HRW
New Delhi: Out of the 173 campaign speeches during the recent Indian Lok Sabha elections, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) analysis has found that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made Islamophobic remarks in 110 speeches.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the global rights group said Modi frequently used hate speech against Muslims and other minorities. The leadership of Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) repeatedly made statements inciting discrimination, hostility, and violence against marginalised groups during the election campaign, an HRW statement said.
Modi’s Islamophobic speeches contained accusations that the opposition parties were promoting Muslim rights to foster fear among the Hindu community through disinformation.
Noting that India is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits “advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.”, the rights group also said the Modi government’s actions have violated India’s obligations under international human rights law that prohibit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or religion and require the government to ensure equal protection of the law to everyone.
“Indian Prime Minister Modi and BJP leaders made blatantly false claims in their campaign speeches against Muslims and other minority groups,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These inflammatory speeches, amid a decade of attacks and discrimination against minorities under the Modi administration, have further normalised abuses against Muslims, Christians, and others.”
“The Indian government’s claims of plurality and being the ‘mother of democracy’ ring hollow in the face of its abusive anti-minority actions,” Pearson said. “The new Modi government needs to reverse its discriminatory policies, act on violence against minorities, and ensure justice for those affected.”
The speeches made by the prime minister targeting the minority community during the election campaign had drawn a lot of outrage from opposition parties, civil society and the Muslim community. Now, international rights groups have also issued detailed statements on the issue and other incidents affecting the country’s minorities under the current regime.
In the statement, the HRW pointed out that during the campaign, Modi regularly raised fears among Hindus through false claims that their faith, places of worship, wealth, land, and the safety of girls and women in their community would be under threat from Muslims if the opposition parties were voted to power.
He repeatedly described Muslims as “infiltrators” and claimed Muslims had “more children” than other communities, raising the spectre that Hindus — about 80 percent of the current population — will become a minority in India.
In a speech on May 14 in Koderma, Jharkhand, Modi said that “the idols of our gods are being destroyed” and that “these infiltrators [Muslims] have threatened the security of our sisters and daughters.”
In a May 17 speech in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, he made false claims that the political opposition would harm the newly opened Ram Temple, controversially built atop the razed historical Babri Masjid at Ayodhya. He said that if the opposition alliance came to power, “they will again send Ram Lalla [the Hindu deity Lord Ram] to the tent and they will run a bulldozer over the temple.”
On May 7, in a speech in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, the prime minister claimed that the opposition Congress Party “intends to give priority to Muslims even in sports. So, Congress will decide who will make it to the Indian cricket team on the basis of religion.”
Modi often implied that Muslims endangered the safety of girls and women in the country and claimed that the interests of Congress and opposition parties were aligned with Pakistan and “terrorists.”
The rights group pointed out that it was not just the prime minister but also other BJP leaders who were engaged in the rhetoric targeting Muslims during the election campaign. Several other BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and the former minister for information and broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, made speeches pitting Hindus against Muslims, fuelling hatred and insecurity among the Hindu population.
It also drew attention towards animated videos on BJP-related social media accounts to target Muslims during the election campaign.
The international rights groups also noted the targeting of Muslims following the election results. It pointed out the incidents like demolition of houses belonging to the members of the Muslim community in Madhya Pradesh, the lynching of three Muslims in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur and a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh.
“Since Modi’s BJP government first took office in 2014, its discriminatory policies and anti-Muslim speeches by BJP leaders have incited Hindu nationalist violence. The authorities have failed to take adequate action against those responsible, fostering a culture of impunity that has fuelled further abuses. At the same time, the authorities have often acted against victims of the violence and sought to persecute critics of the government through politically motivated prosecutions,” reads the statement.
