The race for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to seek a third consecutive term in power as the fifth of seven rounds of voting in India’s staggered general elections begins this week. rhetoric has reached alarming proportions. pitch.
At election rallies across the country, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the prime minister’s closest ally and India’s second most powerful official, said he would take control of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir if re-elected against neighboring Pakistan. He threatened to take “decisive action” to “recover.” He was seized 77 years ago.
Shah declared that despite Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal, India would act to “reclaim” the third of Kashmir that Pakistani troops and armed Pathans occupied after independence from colonial rule in 1947 in violation of a bilateral agreement.
“We have a right to it.” [Pakistan-administered Kashmir] And we will take active steps to get it back at the appropriate time,” Shah said, hinting at the possibility of war between the two nuclear powers. “We have set this goal,” he said at a rally in the eastern state of Bengal on May 15, and issued similar warnings in other regions, without giving details.
Prime Minister Modi criticized the opposition National Conference’s advice that India should involve Pakistan in dialogue to promote peace.
Speaking at an election rally in the eastern state of Odisha on May 11, he derided Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities as incompetent and ineffective, saying the beleaguered state of Islamabad “cannot even deal with a nuclear attack. ‘ he claimed. [nuclear] bomb”. He claimed that Pakistan had considered selling its nuclear weapons but could not find a buyer because of their poor quality.
India and Pakistan have fought four wars since independence, three of them over Kashmir, which is claimed by both countries. Globally, Kashmir is considered a “nuclear flashpoint” territorial dispute.
Indian political commentators say that citing Pakistan in election speeches is an effort by the Bharatiya Janata Party to attract votes from India’s majority Hindu community, which makes up about 80% of India’s population of more than 1.4 billion people. He said it was part of the department’s Islamophobic policies.
The country’s 200 million Muslims, who make up about 15 percent of the population, have long been targeted by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its many associated religious, social and political organisations as part of a collective objective to spread Hindutva, or Hindu hegemony.
According to media reports, such anti-Muslim sentiment is also aimed at motivating BJP leaders and energizing party supporters after the low turnout in the first four elections. These have caused unrest within the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the party’s apparent inability to secure the supermajority it expected based on Mr. Modi’s personal popularity and his government’s economic and governance performance over the past decade. I was disappointed. In response, the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership has opted for a “stronger” anti-Muslim clarion call to attract voters, analysts said.
Prime Minister Modi has repeatedly warned Hindu voters against the Congress party’s election, saying it would confiscate people’s wealth, land and even jewels and distribute it to Muslims. He also said that under India’s extensive affirmative action system, Congress favors Muslims over Hindus.
At a recent rally in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, Prime Minister Modi urged voters to choose between a “jihad vote” and governance based on the tenets of “Ram Rajya”, the Hindu god Ram. guided the Prime Minister in creating prosperity and justice, he said. society.
Tens of millions of Hindus worship the god Ram, and Prime Minister Modi in January visited the god’s birthplace in Ayodhya, northern India, a 16th-century temple destroyed by Hindu fanatics 32 years ago. A temple was built on the site of a mosque. The demolition sparked nationwide riots that left more than 2,000 people dead, mostly Muslims.
Prime Minister Modi denies demonizing Muslims, despite recently publicly calling them “infiltrators” and a community with many children. This stems from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s enduring belief that Muslims produce far more children than Hindus and will eventually numerically subsume Muslims.
In an interview with CNN News 18 on May 14, the prime minister denied claims by opposition parties and the media that he was defaming Muslims, saying he would abandon public life if he were to resort to sectarianism.
“I don’t practice Hinduism or Islam.” [politics]. That is my determination,” the Prime Minister said in an interview in Hindi, a clip of which was published in X. Asked why he labeled Muslims as a people who have more children than other people, the prime minister said it always referred to the poor. I had a large family.
But the next day, Prime Minister Modi returned to Hindu-Muslim politics at a rally in Nashik, western India. He warned voters against allocating 15% of India’s budget to Muslim welfare as part of the opposition’s “divisive” agenda to downgrade Hindus and urged them to elect the Bharatiya Janata Party as guardian. did.
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