(New Delhi) India’s main opposition Congress party filed a complaint with the Election Commission on Monday against Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “blatantly targeting” the Muslim minority in an official speech. with the current legislative elections.
During a recent election rally in Rajasthan, Mr Modi claimed that if the Congress party wins these elections, the “national wealth” would be distributed to those with the most children, the “infiltrators”. “Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators? Would you accept this? “, he added.
His detractors felt that he was attacking Muslims in this way.
India, the world’s most populous country with more than 1.4 billion people, is constitutionally a secular state and its electoral code prohibits any canvassing based on “communal sentiments.”
Opponents of Narendra Modi, whose policies are marked by the promotion of Hinduism, accuse him of marginalizing his 200 million Muslim compatriots.
The head of the outgoing government, however, generally avoids explicit references to religion: the word “Hindu” does not appear in the 76-page electoral program of his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In its complaint to the Election Commission, the Congress party said that the “divisive, objectionable and malicious” comments Mr. Modi mentioned targeted “a particular religious community” and constituted “blatant and direct violations of the electoral laws.
They were “much worse than any ever made by a serving prime minister in the history of India”, continued this training.
“We hope that concrete measures will be taken,” said Congress party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
His BJP counterpart, Gaurav Bhatia, told reporters on Monday that Mr. Modi called “a spade a spade” and that his remarks echoed what people were thinking.
The BJP is widely expected to win the marathon elections in India which began on Friday and the results of which should be known on June 4.
At the start of the year, Narendra Modi inaugurated in the north of his country a large temple dedicated to the god Rama erected on the site of a centuries-old mosque razed in 1992 by Hindu fanatics.