New Delhi: If Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not make it clear Banswara a few days ago Religious polarization is its primary electoral strategy as it seeks a third consecutive term in office, the BJP on Tuesday formalized the message. In an animated video posted on its official Instagram account, the BJP defended Modi’s central assertion that the Congress party, if elected, would distribute Hindu wealth and property to Muslims – whom the party describes as the opposition party’s “preferred community”.
Gone are the euphemisms Modi used in his speech — “infiltrators” and “those with more children.” The party’s video mentions Indian Muslims and directly targets them – against the backdrop of blatant Amar Chitra Katha-style art. Rahul Gandhi is seen holding the Congress manifesto whose cover turns into the Muslim League flag.
Although it may seem shocking in the world’s largest democracy, it has become commonplace over the past ten years for the Bharatiya Janata Party to turn Indian elections into an exercise in perpetuating hatred against Muslims.
Illustration: Pariblah Chakraborty
Every time, the opposition parties in the Modi years tried to raise concerns like growing inequality, livelihood concerns, poor public education and health infrastructure, and other issues related to economic and social justice, the BJP and its leaders made a point of withdrawing the issue. Political discourse returns to the artificial Hindu-Muslim dualism.
Take a look at the polarizing tone of the BJP video. It stated: “If the Congress Party comes to power, it will snatch all the money and wealth of non-Muslims and distribute it to Muslims, their preferred community!”
It continues to repeat the same lie that Modi first uttered during his election campaign – where former Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that Muslims have the first right to resources. In fact, Singh, in a 2006 speech, identified Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs and Muslims as marginalized groups who should receive preferential treatment via affirmative action. Another video from 2009 that the BJP began happily circulating shows Manmohan sticking to his assertion that minorities, “if they are poor,” have a “prior claim.”
The BJP video then repeats the lies that the Hindu right has been peddling ever since its existence:
“Ancient India was truly beautiful. We were so rich and prosperous that every common citizen had a lot of gold. A lot of wealth. A lot of riches. And precisely because of our prosperity, invaders, terrorists, thieves and thieves used to come again and again to plunder all our treasures. They would bring back Distributing the spoils among themselves, and on top of that, they were vandalizing our temples, and the Congress Party empowered people who belonged to the same community.
Regardless of the false and unjustified claim that today’s Muslim Indians are responsible – as a community – for the destruction of temples, the simplistic story presented by the BJP It has been rejected several times by famous historians as lacking any validity. Historians have said that Indian history is full of complex politics and power struggles that cannot be simply reduced to “Hindu-Muslim rivalry”. However, the prevailing political climate in India gave more and more strength to the collective understanding of history. In power at the Center and in many states, the BJP has been keen to color textbooks and university textbooks on Indian history with a narrow understanding of this discipline in its attempt to highlight the “glorious past” that was destroyed by “Muslims”. .
The video broadcast by the BJP perpetuates the same myth about Indian history in order to support the claims made by Modi about the Congress confiscating the mangalsutra and the gold of “our sisters and mothers” and distributing it to Muslims or Muslims. Opposition leaders are behaving like Mongols “Who found malicious joy in demolishing temples and desecrating places of worship.”
“If you are a non-Muslim, Congress will snatch your wealth and distribute it to Muslims. Narendra Modi knows this evil plan! Only he has the power to stop it. If you really care about Bharatiya civilisation, then you should come out and vote for Modi! ‘Ab ki baar 400 paar’ is the absolute need of the hour .
The BJP’s communal campaign has taken observers by surprise, given the fact that just a month ago the Prime Minister appeared to be banking on what he said were his achievements over the past 10 years and his stated “commitment” to transforming India into a developed country. By 2047.
The constant campaign by the opposition on social justice issues seems to have pushed the BJP back to its original image. The Congress demands an all-India caste census that would help the government reformulate its affirmative action policy in a way that resources can be distributed equally among underrepresented groups among marginalized communities. The fact that some BJP leaders have spoken out about how a two-thirds majority for the BJP in the Lok Sabha could help the party “rewrite the Constitution” also appears to have sent a negative message to communities whose retention in jobs and educational institutions was guaranteed under the Constitution. .
The BJP’s recent communal attack against Muslims appears to have been a tactic to offset any potential electoral losses due to the opposition’s campaigning on these social justice issues.
When the opposition demanded a caste census for the first time last year, it stunned the Modi government. Party leaders felt they could neither support nor oppose the idea.
The BJP relies entirely on uniting different Hindu caste groups under the umbrella of Hindutva for electoral success. It has been decidedly anti-Muslim in its political rhetoric, and has denied Muslims any political representation under its banner. In power, the saffron party showed that polarization, whether on the basis of religion or class, was its only game. While it relied on pitting Hindus against Muslims, it also provoked hostility between politically dominant backward groups against other marginalized but somewhat underrepresented communities among Hindus.
With the opposition taking up the cause of social justice, which has historically given way to backward caste assertion, the BJP may have recognized an imminent threat to its politically effective strategy of Hindu empowerment.
In damage control mode, the saffron party clearly believes that its anti-Muslim legacy could once again prove to be a diversionary tactic – but such divisive rhetoric targeting Muslims does not stop at the level of speeches. It empowers right-wing Hindu militancy on the ground and leaves a large section of Indian minorities feeling threatened and anxious. There is ample evidence that anti-Muslim violence has escalated in India over the past decade. Communal prejudices against Muslims have reached a new level, threatening social cohesion and the unique ability of Indians from diverse backgrounds to coexist.
That the BJP released such a blatant communal video when the Election Commission (EC) served notice to the party chief over the polarizing language used by the “star of the campaign” (Modi) in Banswara indicates that it is in no mood to give away the benefits an anti-Muslim campaign will come. The video also means that the BJP is confident that the EC will turn a blind eye to any complaints that come its way.