An election campaign video shared by BJP’s official Instagram page urging to vote for Modi, demonised Muslims to target the Congress manifesto. The Islamophobic video, now removed by the user, drew flak from critics.
“If the Congress comes of power, it will snatch all wealth of non-Muslims,” the voiceover in Hindi with English subtitles said. The comic strip motion poster video urges Bharatiyas to vote only to Modi.
In a sharp criticism, Journalist and author Rana Ayyub said, “At no point since he became the Prime Minister did Narendra Modi promise that his policies had changed since the 2002 anti-Muslim carnage. He is doing today what he did yesterday, you wanted to move on, he never did.”
On 21 April in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to Muslims as ‘infiltrators’ and those ‘who have more children’.
Calling “Muslims” the “favourite community” of Congress, the video mimics the misinformation pitched by Modi that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said “Muslims must have the first claim on resources”.
“Ancient India was really beautiful. We were so rich and prosperous that each and every average citizen had plenty of gold, plenty of wealth, plenty of riches. And it was precisely because of our prosperity, invaders, Terrorists, robbers and thieves used to come again and again. Used to loot all our treasures. They used to re-distribute the loot among themselves. And on top of that, they used to ruin our temple. And the Congress party has been empowering people who belongs to the very same community,” the narrator stated.
Despite multiple complaints against the anti-Muslim campaign launched by BJP leaders, the Election Commission of India have not taken action against it.
The Election Commission (EC), on 23 April said that it was examining the complaint made against the Prime Minister’s speech. But on the same day, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said at a rally in Amroha, “If you look at the Congress’ manifesto, they say they will implement personal laws, meaning Sharia law.”
On 26 April, EC issued a notice to BJP President JP Nadda regarding PM Modi’s comments and gave the party until 29 April to respond.
