Perhaps no other politician than the present Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, has the deftness to juggle words so instantly as to give an opposite meaning to what he has said. After his remark that the opposition Congress was planning to take away Indians’ wealth, including women’s mangalsutras, and give it to “infiltrators” who “have more children,” which led to a controversy and drew flak from the opposition parties, the Prime Minister gave a twist to its meaning. He said in an interview with News 18: “I am worried how the remark about people with more children is linked to only Muslims! Why do they treat Muslims this way? It is the situation of poor families in our country.”
Whatever twist Modi wanted to give to his own words, the targeted audience understood that his words allude to Muslims. Although Modi’s party and the government have practically excluded the so-called infiltrators and people that raise more children from the word ‘sab’ (all), Modi’s slogan, “sabka saath, sabka vikas,” promises “prosperity for all” and continues to echo from the official chamber.
No Divident
Turbocharging Islamophobia during the general elections could not give better electoral dividends for the BJP. The PM made an allegation that the Congress wanted Muslims to engage in what he called “vote jihad” and was planning to lock up the Ram temple built on the ruins of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. Political observers and analysts thought the ruling party would tone down its anti-Islamic rhetoric after the setback in the Lok Sabha polls. However, that was a delusion as these leaders continue to revisit the anti-Islamic theme even now. The recent directives of the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh governments mandating eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display the names and identities of owners on the plea to ensure peaceful and orderly pilgrimage is another example of the BJP’s continued anti-minority stance. Fortunately, the Supreme Court in its interim order stayed the directives.
Union Minister for Textiles Giriraj Singh, who has risen rapidly through the ranks in the first two terms of the Modi government and who periodically spits venom against Muslims, recently said “The biggest mistake was to let Muslims live here. If the country was partitioned on religious lines, why were Muslims allowed to remain here? Had they not been allowed to live here, this situation would not have been created.” Going one step further, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, in a party meeting in Kolkata on the same day, unabashedly called for scrapping the minority cell of the ruling BJP and for throwing away the slogan “Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas.”
