Campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha Lok Sabha seat Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted sitting MP and Congress candidate Danish Ali, accusing him of having objections in chanting “Bharat Mata ki jai”.
“Will a person, who cannot accept Bharat Mata ki jai, look good in the Indian Parliament? Should such a person who does not like to pay gratitude to his motherland be allowed to enter Parliament,” PM Modi asked the people at the Gajraula rally, referring to the local MP.
In September 2023, then BSP MP Danish Ali was the target of BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri’s hate speech and Islamophobic slurs on the floor of Lok Sabha.
BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri called Ali a “pimp”, a “terrorist” and used the pejorative “circumcised” among other derogatory remarks inside the Indian parliament. At least two senior BJP leaders and former union ministers laughed, sitting next to him.
The appeals by Ali and other Opposition leaders to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to condemn Bidhuri’s behaviour have gone unanswered.
As outrage over the remarks grew inside parliament, defence minister and former BJP president Rajnath Singh had issued an apology. “I express regret if the opposition is hurt by the remarks made by the member,” he said. The remarks were also expunged from parliamentary records. That matter is before the Lok Sabha’s Privileges Committee.
Narendra Modi has been accused by Opposition parties of delivering hateful and inflammatory speeches against minorities and opposition parties during his election campaigns.
In Amroha speech, Modi said, “The SP and the Congress declined the invitation to the Ram temple’s consecration ceremony in Ayodhya. People hankering for vote banks refused the invitation to the ceremony.”
“They are not satisfied after refusing the invitation, so they abuse the Ram temple and Sanatan Dharma. The SP, for its vote bank, call Ram bhakts ‘pakhandi’ (hypocrite). Those in the INDIA bloc hate Sanatan Dharma.” He went on to say that when he went under the sea to offer prayers in Gujarat’s Dwarka, where Krishna had gone from Amroha, “the prince of the Congress said there is nothing to pray under the sea. They are rejecting our faith only for their vote banks”.
Hitting out at Akhilesh Yadav and Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, he said, “Those in Bihar who say they are Yaduvanshis, in Uttar Pradesh, the leader who takes the benefits of being a Yaduvanshi, I want to ask them, how can they sit with a party that insults Lord Krishna? How can you have an agreement with them?”
Last week, a plea has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking action against PM Modi for violating the model code of conduct by allegedly seeking votes in the name of “God and place of worship.”
The speeches of the PM have the potential to create hatred amongst voters on the line of caste and religion, the petition observed.
The plea sought a direction on the Election Commission of India to disqualify the PM from elections for six years under Representation of Peoples Act.
