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Modi says the day he does divisive politics, he will be unworthy of public life
In response to a question whether Muslims would vote for him or if he needed their votes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country’s people would vote for him
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said people across religious lines will vote for him, maintaining the day he does divisive politics he will be unworthy of public life, days after his comments alleging Congress will take away reservations meant for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and other backward classes and give them to Muslims as well redistribute wealth to the minority community sparked an uproar.
“The day I do Hindu-Muslim, I will be unworthy of public life...it is my resolve that I will not do Hindu-Muslim,” he said in an interview with News18 India in his constituency of Varanasi on Tuesday.
Modi, who posted clips of the interview on X on the day he filed his nomination for the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, maintained he neither said Hindu nor Muslim in his April 21 speech in Rajasthan’s Banswara. “I said you should have as many children as you can support. Do not create a situation where the government has to...”
In response to a question whether Muslims would vote for him or if he needed their votes, he said the country’s people would vote for him. He referred to the housing scheme and said when houses are given, he talks about 100% delivery. Modi said when homes are given, there is no consideration of community, caste, or religion. He called 100% saturation social justice and true secularism. “...there is no chance of corruption in it. You know that if another person got it this Monday, I will get it next Monday.”
The comments came days after the Election Commission of India (ECI) sent a notice to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda in response to the Congress, Communist Party of India, and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation’s complaints about Modi’s Banswara speech.
Opposition leaders targeted Modi over the comments with Congress chief Mallikaarjun Kharge calling the remarks “hate speech”. Kharge said that Modi had “lowered the dignity of political discourse”.
In the notice to Nadda, the ECI said star campaigners have to set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of the Model Code of Conduct in letter and spirit.
In its complaint, the Congress highlighted a part of Modi’s speech in which he said when the party was in power it said Muslims have the first right to the country’s resources. Modi questioned who will they redistribute resources to. “Those who have more children. Those who are infiltrators. Will your hard-earned money be given to infiltrators? Will you accept that? The Congress manifesto says they will take stock of the gold owned by our mothers and sisters, and then they will redistribute that wealth. And distribute it to those who, according to the Manmohan Singh government, have the first right to resources — Muslims. This is Urban Naxal thinking, and mothers and sisters, they will not even spare your Mangalsutra. They will stoop to this level.”
In December 2006, then-Prime Minister Singh said, “We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on our resources.”
The Congress has said that the BJP is misrepresenting Singh’s remarks and that he had spoken of the need to empower the marginalised, including the scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes, and Muslims.
The Congress maintained Modi’s comments violated sections of the Indian Penal Code and the MCC, a voluntary set of guidelines for political parties during the election season. MCC says no party or candidate shall include in “any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic.”
