Sravasti Dasgupta 
Hours after his final election rally for the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his two-day “meditation” at the Vivekananda Rock in Kanniyakumari. Despite objections raised by opposition parties to the Election Commission earlier, photos and videos continued to pour in through Friday, during the 48-hour silence period.
Modi’s 2024 campaign has been unprecedented in that, not only has he used religion to seek votes, but that it has seen a sitting Prime Minister openly targeting Indian Muslims as he looks to be re-elected for a third successive term.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Prior to leaving for his meditation trip, Modi concluded his 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign by making a final communal speech to target the opposition.
Addressing a rally in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur on May 30 Modi once again accused the Congress and the INDIA alliance of attempting to take away reservations for SC/ST/OBCs and give them only to Muslims.
“Modi has taken the decision to not let anyone snatch the reservations provided for Dalits and backward castes. In the ten years of my government, I have worked to protect reservations for SC/ST and OBCs. The Congress and the INDI alliance are agitated by my efforts. Their intentions regarding reservations are dangerous,” he said.
“Their track record is to snatch reservations for SC/ST/OBC. They want reservations in government jobs, sports, government tenders, university admissions on the basis of religion. This is against the spirit of the Constitution and against the spirit of Babasaheb Ambedkar. They want to snatch Dalits and backward castes reservations and give them to Muslims only.
“They are conspiring to divide the country on the basis of religion. In the 2024 elections Modi has exposed this conspiracy. This is why they are agitated and that is why they keep hurling abuses at Modi.”
Campaigning for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections ended on May 30, with the seventh and final phase of polling scheduled to take place on June 1.
After the conclusion of the second phase, starting with his most provocative speech in years delivered in Rajasthan’s Banswara, Modi has crafted his entire campaign around targeting Indian Muslims. From mangalsutra, mutton, mujra, “Babri lock”, to ultimately claiming that the world did not even know Mahatma Gandhi, Modi’s 2024 campaign has seen open communalisation, flagrant disregard for Model Code of Conduct that expressly bars the use of religion in campaign speeches, and laden with misinformation.
Mangalsutra
In his speech in Rajasthan’s Banswara on April 21, Modi who had been openly invoking the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya (a culmination of a long drawn political project of the Sangh Parivar and a long time poll promise of the BJP), labelled Indian Muslims as “infiltrators”, those who have more children and accused the Congress of promising in its manifesto that it would redistribute wealth by giving them to Muslims.
Wrongly referring to a speech given by former prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2006, Modi said: “Earlier, when his government was in power, he had said that Muslims have the first right on the country’s property, which means who will they collect this property and distribute it to – those who have more children, will distribute it to the infiltrators. Will the money of your hard work be given to the infiltrators? Do you approve of this?”
Modi went on to say, “This Congress manifesto is saying that they will calculate the gold of the mothers and sisters, get information about it and then distribute it. Manmohan Singh’s government had said that Muslims have the first right on property. Brothers and sisters, these urban Naxal thoughts will not let even your mangalsutra escape, they will go this far.”
Singh in his speech had Singh in 2006 had clubbed Muslims with Dalits and Adivasis as the ‘first claimants’ on the country’s resources in order to highlight the social and economic disadvantaged status of the Muslims, as was reported in the Sachar Committee report. The BJP and Modi has since then mischievously spun his statement to propagate the lie that the Congress believes Muslims should be the first rightful owner of India’s resources.
Modi supporters wave cutouts at an election rally. Photo: X/@narendramodi
Mutton
A week before the speech in Banswara, Modi at a rally in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur on April 12, accused the opposition of hurting the sentiments of the majority community by eating non-vegetarian food during Navratri.
“Congress and the INDI gathbandhan are not bothered about the sentiments of the majority of the people in the country. They have fun playing with the sentiments of the people. During Saawan, someone who is out on bail, someone who has been punished by court, they have gone to such a person’s house during the month of Saawan, and had fun while cooking mutton. Not just this, they have made a video as well to ridicule the people of the country,” he said.
He further compared opposition leaders with Mughals for eating non-vegetarian food to ridicule people and “strengthen their vote bank”.
“Law does not stop anyone from eating anything and neither does Modi. Everyone has the independence to eat either veg or non-veg,” he said.
“But these people’s intentions are something else. When Mughals would attack, they would not be satisfied by defeating a ruler. Until and unless they destroyed mandirs and other places of worship they would not be satisfied. They would have fun in that. Similarly during the month of Saawan, by showing a video, they are showing the mentality of the Mughal era and ridiculing the people of the country and strengthening their vote bank,” he continued.
“Who are you trying to ridicule? During the days of Navaratra eating non veg and making a video to hurt people’s sentiments, who are they trying to please?”
Mujra
At a rally in Bihar’s Pataliputra on May 25, Modi’s speech took a communal and sexist turn as he accused the opposition of doing “mujra” for their “vote bank.”
“Today from this land of Bihar, from the land of social justice I want to give a guarantee to the country, to Bihar and to the families of SC/ST/OBC that as long as Modi is alive I will not allow the rights of SC/ST/OBC to be snatched. This is Modi’s guarantee. For Modi Constitution is supreme. For Modi Babasaheb Ambedkar’s values are supreme. If the INDI alliance has to be slaves to their vote bank, let them. If they want to go there and do mujra also, they can. I will continue to stand with the rights of SC/ST/OBC and will do so as long as I am alive,” he said.
Muslim reservations and budget
While Modi in successive speeches has spun the Congress manifesto promise of removing the 50% cap on reservations and extending reservations to the private sector, Modi has alleged in his speeches that the grand old party will provide religion-based reservations including in sports.
Addressing a rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghosi Modi said that the INDIA alliance will “rewrite the constitution” and provide reservations on the basis of religion.
“First, the INDI alliance will change the Constitution and write it in a way that reservation be given on the basis of religion in India. Second, these INDI people will end the reservation given to SC, ST, OBC. Third, they will give the entire reservation to Muslims on the basis of religion,” he said.
“Today, the SP, Congress and INDI alliance’s vote bank politics has fallen to this level. They want to make the majority community in India second-class citizens.”
Earlier he had also claimed that the Congress, if voted to power, would allocate 15% of its budget to Muslims.
Also earlier this month, he claimed at a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar that the opposition is planning on providing reservations on the basis of religion even in sports.
“The Congress’s intention is to give priority to minorities in sports as well. This means it will now decide who will be in and out of the cricket team on the basis of religion,” he said.
See-Saw denials
While his entire campaign has been marked by targeting Muslims, Modi’s campaign has also been marked by denials and somersaults around these communal speeches, with denials issued in television interviews and then the prime minister going on to make the same provocative speeches in subsequent election rallies.
“The day I do Hindu-Musalman politics, I’ll be unworthy of public life. I resolve that I will not do such politics,” Modi said in the interview on May 14.
“I am shocked. Who told you that whenever one talks of people with more children, the inference is that they are Muslims? Why are you so unjust towards Muslims?” he asked, contending that having more children than a family could look after was a problem irrespective of religion.
The next day, at a rally in Maharashtra’s Dindori and Kalyan, Modi once again targeted Muslims.
“Baba Saheb Ambedkar was against religious-based reservation, yet Congress is adamant about taking away reservation from SC/ST/OBC and the poor to give it to Muslims. They’re even considering confiscating your property to appease their vote bank. But Congress and its allies should know this, Modi will never allow budget allocation based on religion or reservation to be granted based on religion. Modi is the guardian of the rights of the deprived,” he said.
A similar see-saw denial and return to the same communal narrative has been seen with his statement accusing the Congress of putting a “Babri lock” on the Ram Temple.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone and Dhar districts had said on May 7 that he “needs 400 seats” so the party cannot succeed in its plan to put the “Babri lock” on the temple in Ayodhya or bring back Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
In an interview to News 18’s Amish Devgan on May 13, on being asked what exactly he meant by that, he said, “This is not my statement.” Devgan persisted, Modi reasserted saying it was not his statement, and Devgan “must not put words in my mouth”.
But on May 16 at Zaidpur, he warned that if the INDIA bloc got a chance, they would bulldoze the Ram temple.
‘No one knew Gandhi’
Perhaps the most marked statement of misinformation came on May 28 when he said, just two days before the campaign ended, that the world came to know of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, only after a film was made on him.
In an interview with ABP News, Modi was asked about the opposition’s absence in the Ram temple consecration ceremony and whether their decision would have an impact on the election results.
In reply, the prime minister criticised the opposition saying they could not come out of a mentality of servitude.
“Mahatma Gandhi was a great man. Wasn’t it our responsibility in these 75 years to make sure that the world knew Mahatma Gandhi? Nobody knows Mahatma Gandhi. It was only when the ‘Gandhi’ film was made that the world was curious to know who this man was,” he said.
Gandhi was known globally, prior to the 1982 film which Modi appears to have been referring to. The international media coverage of Gandhi from as early as the 1920s and several other kinds of documentary evidence of his popularity in the West — among celebrities and common folks alike have been reported here.