New Delhi: “Mullah, madrasa and mafia”, “Babri lock on Ram temple”, “Congress’ appeasement of Muslims”, “vote jihad”, “Pakistan” — these are some of the provocative phrases Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leaders have made in the weeks following the first phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, and after months of harping on ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas’ (inclusion, development and trust of all).
While political analysts and critics see the polarising rhetoric as the ruling party going back to its “old election-winning strategy” of dividing the electorate on religious lines to consolidate Hindu votes, senior BJP leaders termed it a calculated plan to “end voter fatigue and bring in enthusiasm”.
“After the first phase of elections, voter fatigue and disinterest were reflected in our feedback. It thus became necessary to energise our cadre and voters by invoking emotive issues,” a senior BJP leader told ThePrint.
“In 2004, the party cadre was convinced that Atal Bihari Vajpayee would return (as PM), leading to complacency in booth efforts. Learning from this, we must enthuse our cadre and voters,” asserted the leader, adding that “it was necessary to bring Congress’ Muslim appeasement narrative to the public and sometimes their leaders made our work easy”.
PM Modi had first invoked fear of Muslims at his Banswara rally on 21 April, alleging that “if the Congress came to power, it would redistribute people’s assets to infiltrators and those who have more children”. Since then, his speeches have increasingly focused on the minority community, “Congress’s Muslim League manifesto”, Pakistan and related issues.
On Wednesday, the PM lashed out at the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP), part of the opposition INDIA bloc, alleging that the two parties were “sympathisers of Pakistan”.
“Pakistan is devastated, yet its sympathisers in the SP and Congress are trying to scare India by saying we should fear Pakistan’s atom bomb. Why should India be afraid? There is no weak Congress government today but a strong Modi government. Bharat aaj ghar mein ghus kar marta hain (India today beats them in their own homes),” he said in Uttar Pradesh’s Basti.
The PM had also linked the Congress with Pakistan when the third phase of polling was under way on 7 May. At a rally in Madhya Pradesh, he had said: “Why so much love for Pakistan and so much hatred for our army? After every phase of voting, Congress’s love for Pakistan reaches its peak. A former Congress CM said that our army carries out terror attacks, Pakistan is innocent. Look at the shamelessness of another big Congress leader, he said that Pakistan had no role in the Mumbai terror attack.”
In another controversial utterance, Modi told a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district earlier this month that “Congress shehzada (prince, a reference to senior party leader Rahul Gandhi) wants to change the Supreme Court’s (Ayodhya) ruling and they are dreaming to put the Babri (Masjid) lock on the Ram temple”. The charge was repeated by Union home minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah in an Uttar Pradesh rally.
Shah has also made statements seen as a bid to polarise the polls. On Wednesday, he addressed a rally in West Bengal, where he said, “(Chief minister) Mamata Banerjee came to power with the slogan of ‘maa, maati, maanush’, which has now turned into ‘mullah, madrasa and mafia’.” He had made the same remark at a rally in the state last week.
Shah’s words targeted Bengal’s Muslim population which is as high as 30 percent in certain Lok Sabha seats and a hindrance to the BJP in getting a sizable number of votes in the state.
Speaking to ThePrint, Modi’s biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay said, “the PM’s changed stance of bringing up Pakistan and the Muslim League (in poll speeches) is his old election-winning strategy from his Gujarat days when he was the state chief minister”.
“He distinguishes the election campaign from governance. During 300 days of governance, the BJP makes an outreach to Pasmanda Muslims and the minority community, and he (Modi) says ‘sabka vikas, sabka vishwas’. But, he thinks differently in the election cycle of 65 days and to garner votes, he makes provocative speeches and polarises the election by talking about Pakistan and Muslim appeasement,” he explained.
A second BJP leader reiterated the point, saying that the “election is all about creating a narrative in 30-40 days to take away swing voters, and the PM distinguishes between the election campaign and ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ in the rest of the time”.
In a TV interview this month, Modi had stressed that he “didn’t do Hindu-Muslim” and that he “only wants to expose Congress’s Muslim appeasement by highlighting facts”.
He had also asserted that simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls were necessary, asking, “How can I work with other chief ministers if I am speaking against one to other due to poll compulsions?”.
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‘Vote jihad’ & reminders of Godhra
In early May, Modi had talked about “vote jihad”, linking it to Muslims and Congress’s intention to dethrone the BJP.
Addressing a rally in Gujarat, he said: “The Opposition is asking Muslims to do vote jihad — this is new because we have so far heard about love jihad and land jihad. I hope you know what the meaning of jihad is and against whom it is waged.”
His remark came in the wake of SP leader Maria Alam asking a gathering at a UP rally to carry out a “jihad” of “votes” to remove Modi from power.
On Monday, Modi again brought up the subject at a rally in West Bengal, terming “Congress’ vote jihad a dangerous intent” and linking it with Pakistan.
“In Pakistan, terrorists are threatening to do jihad against India. The Congress is also asking certain people to do ‘vote jihad’ against Modi. They are asking the people of a certain religion to vote against Modi. Their intent is very dangerous,” he said.
The PM had raised the issue of the 2002 Godhra train carnage at a rally on 4 May in Bihar, where the RJD led by Lalu Prasad is pitted against the BJP-led NDA.
“When karsevaks were burnt alive in Godhra, the railway minister was the father of this shehzada (apparently referring to Lalu and his son Tejashwi). To save the accused, (senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi) Soniaben appointed a committee and its name was Ben-raji committee (referring to the U.C. Banerjee Commission that had probed the train burning incident). They got a report written through him (Banerjee) declaring that those who burnt alive the 60 karsevaks were innocent and should be set free,” Modi alleged.
Controversial videos
The BJP and its leaders have this poll season posted videos on social media invoking fear about Muslims getting reservation and eating up the SC, ST and OBC quota.
A week before voting in Telangana on 13 May, BJP’s Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharmapuri posted an animated video showing a boat named ‘SC, ST, OBC Quota’, a Muslim man and caricatures resembling Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah. They are seen allowing the Muslim man, and subsequently others from his community, to board the boat, after which the man throws the boat’s previous occupants into the water. PM Modi later turns up in another boat and rescues the people in the water.
The Karnataka BJP also posted a video on similar lines on 4 May, captioned “beware, beware, beware!’
The Karnataka Congress subsequently filed a complaint against the video with the Election Commission, and accused BJP national president J.P. Nadda, BJP national social media in-charge Amit Malviya and BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra in the matter. The post was later removed.
The videos were put out in the wake of claims by the BJP that the Congress had included Muslims in the OBC list.
On 30 April, the BJP on Instagram posted a video targeting Muslims and terming the Congress’ poll manifesto as “Muslim League ideology in disguise”. This video too was removed.
On 16 April, the BJP’s Telangana unit had put out a video showing “Pepe the frog”, an animated character used by the alt-right in the US and considered by many as a hate symbol, and narrating the “saga of Ayodhya Ram Mandir”.
‘Old tactic’
According to Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, Modi’s polarising utterances are all “part of a strategy from his early days in Gujarat”.
“He is only using his winning strategy to consolidate his position among Hindu voters. Ahead of the 2007 Gujarat assembly election, he had used the ‘Miyan Musharraf’ phrase, and he repeatedly used Sonia Gandhi’s ‘Maut ka Saudagar’ statement to turn the tables. He got 117 seats,” he said.
“Modi invoked the fear of Pakistan repeatedly in his days in Gujarat as the state borders Pakistan and law and order was a challenge during the (previous) Congress regime. He saw a window to bring Pakistan into the narrative,” he explained.
Hindu College professor Chandrachur Singh told ThePrint that the PM “speaks the language of his cadre”.
“He doesn’t shy away from speaking about Hindutva pride and what the cadre wants to hear. Bringing up the Ram temple issue and talking about minority appeasement can be seen as his strategy to consolidate his core constituency,” Singh said.
The second BJP leader mentioned earlier explained that “when the INDIA bloc started rumour-mongering about the end of reservation (for SCs, STs and OBCs) if the NDA won 400 seats in the Lok Sabha, we were on the defensive as it was the only issue which could impact the BJP”.
“We changed strategy and linked it to Muslims, saying the Congress wants to reduce reservation to benefit the community. So our twin purpose of consolidating Hindu votes and fighting the reservation rumour got resolved,” the leader added.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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