'Vote Jihad': What next?

NEW DELHI, India - Addressing a crowd of saffron-clad supporters in his home state of Gujarat earlier this week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned to an increasingly popular election theme - how the Hizb The dissident parties are conspiring with the Muslims to take over the state.

The opposition alliance is asking Muslims to 'vote jihad'. This is new because we have so far heard about 'love jihad' and 'land jihad', Modi said before urging his audience, citing Islamophobic conspiracy theories, as to why they need to be afraid. "I hope you all know what jihad means and who it is against."

As India's major national election nears its midpoint, with the third of seven phases of voting scheduled for May 7, Modi's anti-Muslim rhetoric is on the rise. This is troubling to analysts and even Muslims who had recently supported the prime minister but now fear that the rhetoric could serve as oxygen for increased physical violence against Indian Muslims.

His latest comments came after Maria Alam, a local leader of the opposition Samajwadi Party, addressed a gathering in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, asking Muslims to "jihad" to "vote" because "This is the only jihad. That they can do to remove Modi from power. After Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party attacked him for using "jihad" in his speech, he clarified to the press that "Jihad ", through Arabic for Struggle, she is encouraging Muslim voter turnout.

However, Modi said in his speech that the call for "vote jihad" was "dangerous for the country's democracy". However, critics and opposition leaders alleged that the prime minister's words, aimed at India's 200 million Muslims, were troubling for India, especially amid a tense election in which 960 Millions of voters have registered to cast their ballots.

'infiltrators', 'attackers', 'looters'

In a campaign speech last week, Modi likened the Muslim community to "infiltrators" and described them as "producers", referring to a popular Hindu-majority community that Muslims have more children. do, with the ultimate goal of outnumbering Hindus in India. Muslims make up less than 15 percent of the national population, and official statistics show that their birth rate is falling faster than that of Hindus and other major religious groups.

The comments sparked a political controversy, drawing sharp criticism from the opposition and sections of civil society. About 20,000 citizens wrote to the Election Commission of India seeking action against allegations of hate speech by Modi.

Nevertheless, two days later, on April 23, Modi doubled down on his comments claiming that there was a conspiracy between the Congress – the country's largest opposition party – and Muslims to steal Hindu wealth.

Referring to the Muslims, he said, "I presented the truth to the nation that the Congress has hatched a deep conspiracy to take away your property and distribute it among its special favorites."

Then, on April 30, the BJP posted an animated campaign video on Instagram, featuring stereotypical images of violent and greedy Muslim male invaders invading medieval India and plundering its riches. Before Modi arrives to save the nation. The video reiterated the Prime Minister's claim that the Congress, if elected, would distribute Hindu wealth and property to Muslims.

While former Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said 18 years ago that backward Indian communities, including Muslims, should first get access to national resources, the Congress's election manifesto did not refer to taking away wealth from a single community. has been given. Any other group. Other conspiracy theories that Modi has publicly cited in recent days include notions of 'love jihad' - that Muslim men are marrying women from other religions to convert them to Islam - and 'Land Jihad' - that Muslims are collecting land to acquire. Control of Indian territory.

None of this comes as a surprise to Modiji's biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, who said that religious polarization has been second nature to Modi for decades. "BJP and Modi have brutalized Indian democracy badly," he told VOU. "It is probably the worst time to be a Muslim in India today, who all the time feel that they are prisoners of their identity."

While Instagram removed the April 30 video after several users reported it for hate speech, India's Election Commission has yet to act on complaints against Modi, leading opposition leaders to There was criticism.

Modi has defamed the dignity of the post of Prime Minister. His words can never be the words that come out of the mouth of the Indian Prime Minister," on the Congress lawmaker Maud Ti said

Wari, Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House of the Indian Parliament.

"Democracy is at stake in these elections and the Election Commission of India is sleeping on it," he said while talking to VOU. "The Congress Party demands that Modi's candidature be disqualified and he should be barred from campaigning."

'Bring up more hate'

Meanwhile, critics say Modi's "hateful remarks" have made Muslims vulnerable to violence. "These remarks are likely to make Hindutva activists feel vindicated by the support of the country's highest office. They will feel patronized," said Irfan Engineer, director of the Mumbai-based Center for the Study of Society and Secularism. Hindutva refers to the Hindu-majority ideology of the BJP and its ideological patron, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"I hope these remarks do not incite further hatred and violence - but that is hope against hope."

The engineer, who has monitored communal violence for decades and visited affected areas with fact-finding teams, said "these kinds of speeches and rallies have fueled violence" in areas that other The case is known for inter-religious harmony.

Amnesty International said it was also worried about the consequences of Modi's remarks.

Akar Patel said, "The bodies set up to monitor such speech during elections should work to hold accountable those responsible for such remarks. However, so far, we have only seen the Election Commission of India." "It is unfortunate to see such provocation and hostility from the side," Amnesty International's India Board Chair said in a statement to VOU.

"This widespread impunity indicates the extent and severity of systematic discrimination against Muslims in India."

Where Modi has previously portrayed himself as a victim of opposition attacks – pointing to his childhood in relative poverty as opposed to the privilege many opposition leaders grew up with, for example – “This time, they have outdone themselves and created a victimization. The entire Hindu community”, said the engineer.

"This is the ultimate point of the Hindu nationalist movement, where all Hindus are victims - and, therefore, you need a strong state with no room for democratic institutions, freedom of expression, or freedom [of religion]. "

'Included by the individual'

Research shows that at least in some parts of India, Muslim support for the BJP, though small, is slowly growing. It increased from less than 5 percent in 2012 to more than 9 percent in 2022 in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest and most politically important state.

Yet, Modi's biographer, Mukhopadhyay, said that even those Indian Muslims who have supported Modi are weak today. He said that Modi will still come and attack Muslims.

This proved true for Usman Ghani, a young political leader in the northwestern state of Rajasthan. Ghani joined the student wing of the BJP during college and became the president of the minority wing of his district. A few months ago, he welcomed Modi during the state election campaign.

However, when he went for poll outreach, he said voters forced him to respond to PM Modi's comments against the community, which he called "nonsense". He was expelled from the party and later detained by the local police in the BJP-ruled state.

"Modi is a bigger sect than anyone [in the Hindutva movement] has ever been," Mukhopadhyay said. "Is this an election or an individual glorification campaign?"

“The movement of Hindutva has been absorbed by the individual. This is a huge paradox because, for the Sangh [RSS] family, no individual is above the organization.

A New Delhi-based political observer, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions for his work, said Modi's focus on anti-Muslim fears was a response to lower-than-usual voter turnout in the first two phases of national elections. Maybe. "Nobody is buying Modi's economic growth pitch anymore, so he is polarizing V."

Others.” Still, despite record-high unemployment, widening income and wealth inequality, and a slide in democratic indicators, polls place Modi as the favorite for a third term in power.

"If the mandate of 2014 was for so-called development and 2019 was for nationalism, now, in 2024, Modi will feel more confident that he won votes for polarisation," said the engineer. "Anti-Muslim hatred is now central to BJP's campaign."