Modi’s election speeches: A flood of lies and hatred

                                                                               – Ram Puniyani

The propaganda machinery of the BJP is quite strong and the party’s parent organisation RSS further expands the reach of this machinery. The basic premise of the propaganda campaign of the RSS-BJP has always been to distort medieval history to demonise Muslims and glorify the ancient Indian civilisation and culture based on caste and gender hierarchy. The Sangh Parivar has been using different themes from time to time. One theme is that Muslim kings destroyed Hindu temples. This was the basic message of the Ram Mandir movement. Then national security is also a major theme, in which Pakistan is portrayed as India’s enemy. Before the demolition of the Babri Masjid, apart from other anti-Muslim themes, they also used to talk about the Indianisation of Muslims.

In the last decade, they talked about ‘achche din’ and many other slogans like safety of women, 15 lakhs in every person’s account and employment for two crore people every year. An attempt was also made to prove Congress to be a corrupt party. Anna Andolan was run with the support and under the aegis of organizations associated with RSS, due to which for many years it was in the minds of the people that Congress is a party of corrupt leaders. Then in the 2019 elections, Pulwama-Balakot was made an issue and we were told that only the BJP government can protect the country. However, anti-Muslim propaganda also continued during this entire period. Needless to say, the propagandists of RSS-BJP do not give much importance to truth and facts.

In this (2024) election, the hope was that the Ram temple in Ayodhya would take the BJP’s boat to shore. There was also the issue of Gyanvapi. But it soon became clear that the public is tired of issues like Ram temple-Gyanvapi and they are not going to have any significant impact. People are more worried about their deteriorating socio-economic condition and less about the grand Ram temple. After this, the BJP-RSS decided to adopt their old trick once again. That trick is to oppose Muslims and divide the society on religious grounds.

Mr. Modi made Muslims his election issue and for this he used the Congress election manifesto which promised justice to the weaker sections of the society (tribals, Dalits and religious minorities), women empowerment, employment and internships for the youth etc.

RSS and its affiliated organizations have long been opposed to justice for the weaker sections of society. RSS was established in 1925 because Dalits had started raising their voice for their rights and women had started becoming more active and involved in society. BJP realized that Rahul Gandhi’s emphasis on reservation and positive discrimination policies was having a positive impact on the public. Now BJP could not openly say that it was against reservation. Also, it had to deal with the rising graph of Rahul Gandhi. The first step in this direction was the false statement by the head of the Sangh that RSS has never been against reservation.

On the other hand, Modi is cooking up a new dish. He is saying, “…Congress wants to give reservation to Muslims by reducing the quota set for Dalits and backward classes, which is against the Constitution. The right of reservation that Baba Saheb had given to Dalits, backward classes and tribals, Congress and the Indy alliance want to give it to Muslims on the basis of religion.”

Modi also used the Congress manifesto’s mention of caste census and calling it an X-ray of society in his anti-Muslim propaganda. He set new records of lying by saying that the Congress will do an X-ray to find out which Hindu has gold and wealth and then distribute it among the infiltrators (the BJP’s term for Muslims). To scare Hindus and especially Hindu women, he said, “My mothers and sisters, they will not spare even your mangalsutra. The Congress manifesto says that if their government is formed, the property of every person in the country will be surveyed. It will be found out how much gold our sisters have and how much property government employees have… They have also said that the gold our sisters have will be distributed equally among all people. Does the government have the right to snatch your property from you?” He said, “The mangalsutra of Hindu women will be snatched and given to Muslims.”

By saying all this, they are trying to kill multiple birds with one stone. First, criticizing the Congress manifesto, second, targeting Muslims and third, scaring Hindu women. After all, how many lies can one tell? They are confident that a large number of people will believe their bundle of lies. They know that the committed workers of the Sangh Parivar, its IT cell and the TV channels and newspapers controlled by corporate houses will ensure that a large section of the common people take this blatant lie seriously. They have even dragged the poor buffalo, which never found a place in the BJP’s Gau Mata-centric narrative, into their campaign. “If you have two buffaloes, the Congress will take one of them out of your enclosure”.

And then how is it possible that there is no mention of Pakistan in the election campaign of BJP-Modi. Modiji said that Pakistan wants a weak government to be formed in India. A gentleman named Fahad Chaudhary, who is a former minister of Pakistan, had said that Rahul Gandhi is talking about socialist policies. Modi says that Pakistan wants Rahul Gandhi to become the Prime Minister so that operations like Balakot do not happen. Modiji has probably forgotten that the Congress led by Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother Indira Gandhi had taken the bold decision to divide Pakistan into two parts after freeing Bangladesh – and that too against the wishes of the powerful countries of the West.

Now the Mughals also had to be brought in. For this, Modi used a tweet by Tejashwi Yadav, in which he is seen eating fish a day before Navratri. Modi said that by eating fish during the holy festival of Navratri, Tejashwi is insulting Hindus in the same way as Mughal kings used to do by demolishing temples. By linking a simple picture of an opposition leader to the Mughals and present-day Muslims, Modi ji has shown that he can use anything to demonize Muslims and opposition leaders.

Truly, Modiji is a man of extraordinary talent. He is capable of creating fire even where there is no smoke. (Adapted from English by Amrish Hardenia The author taught at IIT Mumbai and is a recipient of the 2007 National Communal Harmony Award )