In an Islamophobic speech in Rajasthan, Prime Minister and BJP’s star election campaigner Narendra Modi described Muslim minorities in India as “infiltrators” and “those who have more children.”
Modi Sunday said that the Congress, if voted to power, could distribute the nation’s wealth among “infiltrators” and “those who have more children,” misquoting a statement by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding the minority community’s access to the country’s resources.
“This ‘urban Naxal’ mindset, mothers and sisters, they will not even leave your ‘mangalsutra’. They can go to that level… The Congress manifesto says they will calculate the gold with mothers and sisters, get information about it and then distribute that property. They will distribute it to whom – Manmohan Singh’s government had said Muslims have the first right on the country’s assets,” PM Modi said at the rally on Sunday.
“It will be distributed to infiltrators. Should your hard-earned money go to infiltrators? Do you approve of this?” PM Modi said.
“Is it acceptable to you? Do governments have the right to confiscate your property which you have earned through hard work? The gold with our mothers and sisters is not for showing off; it is related to their self-respect. The value of their mangalsutra is not in gold or its price, but is related to her dreams in life. And you are talking about snatching it?” PM Modi said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on X, said the Prime Minister had delivered the “hate speech” after realising that the INDIA alliance had won the first round.
Kharge alleged that lying for power and making baseless allegations about opponents were the values of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party combine that Modi has imbibed.
“In the history of India, no Prime Minister has lowered the dignity of his post as much as Modi ji has,” the Congress chief added.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s speech, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, in a post on X, claimed that “the Prime Minister’s lies have gone very low after the disappointment of the first phase of polling and that’s why he is diverting attention from people’s issues.”
“To win one election, you are spreading lies in the name of Hindu-Muslim. I challenge the Prime Minister to show us if there is any word like Muslim or Hindu in our manifesto. Either you accept this challenge or stop lying,” Congress leader Pawan Khera said in a message on X.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav criticised PM Modi over the speech. “Not only the country but the whole world also knows Prime Minister Narendra Modi lies, the way how he spread lies about the Congress’s ‘Nyay Patra’ and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is an example of dirty politics.”
