On April 21, 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an ‘Islamophobic’ statement during an election speech. In his address, Mr Modi claimed that if the opposition won the elections and took power in the country, the wealth of the common people would be distributed among the “infiltrators.” In addition, Narendra Modi announced at the Rajasthan public meeting that the opposition Congress will distribute the nation’s riches to people with the greatest number of children. With this comment, it is obvious to assume that he is referring to the Muslim community in India. The prime minister made this statement barely two days before India’s protracted election process began.
Furthermore, he declared at another gathering on April 30 in Telangana that he would not grant Muslims quotas as long as he was alive. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Narendra Modi, has a history of specifically attacking India’s religious minorities, particularly Muslims. Numerous grievances have been made.
Major leaders of India’s opposition political parties were almost unanimous in condemning the Prime Minister’s hate speech. Congress filed a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging that Prime Minister Modi is spreading false information to create discord among religious communities and tarnish the opposition party’s image. In Rajasthan’s speech, they demanded the Prime Minister’s “disqualification” for gross violations of election laws. However, there was no reaction from the BJP as a party or from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the scathing criticisms. Interestingly, the contentious portion has yet to appear on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s website, even though the scripts of all of his electoral speeches have been prominently posted online. The website provides an English synopsis of Narendra Modi’s speech at the public gathering in Rajasthan; however, it omits any mention of “Muslims,” “infiltrators,” or “those who have more children.” This implies that the advisors to the prime minister or the election strategists of the BJP might have felt that a “line” had been crossed in this address and hence tried to “damage control.”
Interestingly, the National Election Commission of India oversees all national elections and has also refrained from commenting on the controversial comments. Many political leaders, activists, and social workers in India posted videos of the prime minister’s speech on social media using the hashtag #NationalElections. They even tried to tag the Election Commission to draw their attention; however, the Commission has yet to comment or speak out over the matter.
Examples of anti-Muslim sentiment in the nation include:
1. Common people are disturbed by BJP politicians’ anti-Muslim remarks made during election rallies. Leader of the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shashikant Pandya, declared during an election rally in Deesa, Gujarat, that “this is Hindustan and not Pakistan. Hindustan is for Hindus, and Pakistan is for Muslims; there is nothing wrong with that. Hindus must wake up; if we don’t, we won’t have our country tomorrow. For the safety of Hindu sisters and daughters, vote for the BJP.”.
2. Anil Baluni, another BJP candidate, also spoke at an election rally in Uttarakhand’s Garhwal district, specifically criticising Muslims.
3. In Faridabad, BJP-ruled Haryana, Bittu Bajrangi, a Hindu extremist activist for cow protection, made a strong speech critical of the Muslims living in Mewat town. Bajrangi was arrested in the state of Haryana last year after using hate speech to incite anti-Muslim violence; he was later freed on bond.
4. In Dhule, Maharashtra, Sanjay Sharma, an independent candidate in the next elections and advocate of Hindu nationalism, made a disparaging remark about Muslims. He labelled the Muslims in the neighbourhood as demons and called for “land jihad” and “love jihad” to infiltrate anti-Muslim conspiracies.
5. In Delhi, the country’s capital, a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf is not permitted entry into a cafe. However, after the public outcrying over the occurrence, the cafe’s director apologised. Many Muslim women in India have had their admittance to colleges, and other institutions disallowed only because of wearing the hijab. Prejudice against hijabi women is common outside of academic environments as well.
Hate Report: An auditing agency claims that 668 instances of hate speech occurred in the country in 2023. The main targets of hate in the country are its minorities, primarily Muslims. Of these, 75% of the instances of hate speech took place in states and union territories ruled by the BJP. The India Hate Lab released such a disturbing report. This organisation is based in Washington, D.C., USA. Researchers, journalists, and academics run the India Hate Lab. The group’s responsibility is to monitor and report on hate speech aimed at Indian minorities. Because of the findings, the opposition fiercely criticised the BJP and the Sangh Parivar before the Lok Sabha elections.
The research was made available a month ago. The survey found that there were 255 hateful comments made in the first half of 2023. It rose to 413 in the year’s second half, a 62% rise. During that time, Assembly elections were held in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Telangana, and Mizoram. Moreover, the report claimed that Indian Muslims were still subjected to severe hate speech following the October Hamas attack on Israel.
According to the survey, Maharashtra has the highest rate of hate speech in the nation, with 118 hate speeches made by the BJP and other Hindu religious organisations that support Sangh Parivar’s ideology. Next is Yogi Adityanath’s home state of Uttar Pradesh, where 104 instances of hate speech against minorities have been reported in the last 12 months. Third place goes to Madhya Pradesh, with 65 hate speech cases reported. All three of these states, incidentally, are ruled by the BJP. The BJP ruled or eventually came to power in the top 10 states in this category, including Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Bihar. However, West Bengal’s name is not included in this list. Out of these 668 occurrences, Hate Lab data indicates that 239 hate speech targets were created with the express intent to instigate or encourage violence against the Muslim community. “Love Jihad, Land Jihad, Halal Jihad, and Population Jihad” were found to be the main topics of hate speech.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal were found to be the organisations responsible for 32% (126) of the hate speeches. “The BJP itself was responsible for organising about 50 hate speech events, often in the context of election rallies,” according to the study. Organisations associated with the Sangh Parivar were “in charge of 307 incidents, accounting for roughly 46% of all hate speech events in 2023.” Furthermore, the study observed an increasing number of “organizations specifically committed to safeguarding privacy,” such as “respect groups, which frequently participate in hate speech.”
The study notes that “a significant number of hate speech incidents (15%) prominently identified leaders associated with the BJP,” in addition to “the involvement of Hindu religious leaders in promoting hate speech.”. Just five speakers were responsible for 146 events, or 22 per cent of all hate speech incidents. “The top eight speakers of hate speech are BJP MLAs T Raja Singh and Nitesh Rane, Akhil Hindu Parishad (AHP) chief Pravin Togadia, right-wing influencer Kajal Shingala, owner of Sudarshan News Suresh Chavhanke, Hindu religious leader Yati Narsinghanand, Kalicharan Maharaj, and Sadhvi Saraswati Mishra,” according to the report.
Stay away from propaganda. A few things to think about before voting are:
1. Violation of fundamental rights: The BJP administration has attempted to collect people’s personal information by breaching WhatsApp’s security, which goes against their constitutional right to privacy.
2. Abuse of demonetisation: Without returning the money through demonetisation, this government is exploiting electronic bonds for party purposes.
3. The disgrace of the country to the international community: As a result of purchasing bonds, the government of India didn’t even raise its voice against those companies whose products and even spices contain substances that cause cancer. Other nations prohibit certain products made in India.
4. Support for Capitalism: The rising costs are confusing middle-class families. The government is encouraging capitalism by increasing the cost of basic goods like gasoline and prescription drugs.
5. Destruction of healthcare: With little regard for public health, the government conceals knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccine.
6. Unemployment: Despite the nation’s high unemployment rate, the BJP leadership allocates government funds to religious
causes like the construction of Ram Mandirs. They have no prior history of hiring unemployed people.
7. Women’s Insecurity: It is evident how hazardous the BJP and its nominees are to women in the nation, from BJP alliance MP Prajwal Revanna’s rape of his nanny to his escape to Germany to the West Bengal Governor’s allegations of molestation.

Source :

1. https://iamc.com/bjp-leaders-deliver-anti-muslim-hate-speeches-at-election-rallies-in-gujarat-uttarakhand/
2.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/22/infiltrators-modi-accused-of-anti-muslim-hate-speech-amid-india-election
3. https://www.thequint.com/news/india/668-hate-speech-events-2023-why-the-india-hate-lab-report-should-worry-us