People of India have voted in defence of the Constitution and against divisive hatred

Narendra Modi beginning his third term with a lack of majority means people defended the Constitution and rejected his hatred against Muslims, feels S.N. Sahu.

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NARENDRA Modi is the first Prime Minister of India who occupied that high office for a third term after making blatant communal speeches while campaigning and maligning Muslims through his hate-filled remarks against them.

It is rather a travesty of the Constitution, law, decency and morality that a person after vilifying Muslims in a vicious manner has been elected unanimously by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners to be Prime Minister of India and, paradoxically, that he took an oath of office by bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India which he violated with impunity by his venomous speeches against Muslims.

Modi's hate speeches amounted to corrupt practice

Without any hesitation and respect for the high office he occupies, Modi dubbed Muslims as infiltrators and accused them of producing more children. He shocked the nation beyond measure by creating a fake narrative that the Congress party's manifesto had the imprint of the Muslim League of pre-independent India.

He also went to falsely charge that on coming to power, the Congress party would make the Muslims the first claimant to the nation and snatch the mangalsutras (gold necklaces worn by Hindu married ladies) and hand them over to Muslims.

Such polarising and outrageous articulations violated the Model Code of Conduct and law of the land and yet Modi, instead of facing legal action for such egregious violations, has been chosen to occupy the high office of the Prime Minister and shape the destiny of the nation anchored in secular values and neutrality of the State to religion.

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When he delivered those toxic speeches, he, as Prime Minister, represented the State and he negated its authority with utter disregard unparalleled in the history of independent India.

He did so to seek the votes of the electorate and as per law appealing for votes in the name of religion has been held to be, among other things, a corrupt practice by the Supreme Court. In other words, Modi has become the Prime Minister of India by indulging in corrupt practices.

Modi's lies on reservations

One of the series of lies he uttered was that the Indian National Congress in its election manifesto had provided that reservation quota of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes would be taken away and given to Muslims.

He even told a blatant lie that the properties of Hindus would be surveyed by Congress and those would be usurped and given away to people professing the Islamic faith.

These divisive statements of Modi combined with falsehood and deception associated with his numerous remarks underlined his attributes as an extremist personality who strangely claimed that he is not biological and exhibited greed for office and power in disregard of all constitutional niceties.

He thought that he would divide the electorate on religious lines and get a majority for his party, the BJP, which, in fact, fell short by 36 seats. It is rather shocking that Modi was unleashing a kind of war against Muslims by his diatribes against them for the sole purpose of getting a majority of the Lok Sabha seats so that he would be anointed as the Prime Minister.

Modi went against the composite vision of India

No Prime Minister has ever adopted such a noxious strategy in the annals of independent India where a CSDS-Lok Niti survey recently found that 79 percent of people it surveyed saw India as a land not just of Hindus but of people professing diverse faiths and religious creeds.

Modi himself should be mindful of his election speech of 2014 when he wanted Muslims of India to proudly display the holy Quran in one hand and a computer in another. Without making any communally divisive speech, Modi was ushered in to become the Prime Minister in 2014.

In 2024, when he willfully delivered toxic speeches targeting Muslims, he could only manage to become the Prime Minister with the help of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)].

Also read: Saving the Constitution has become a major poll issue

Ironically, Modi, who vowed that he would not allow extension of reservation facilities in the name of religion, specifically to Muslims, has joined hands with the TDP, which takes pride in earmarking 4 percent reservation to Muslims in Andhra Pradesh.

Even in Bihar, where the JD(U) is a key political player, it is committed to giving reservations to Muslims who are entitled to affirmative action on account of their backwardness arising out of social and economic factors.

So, Modi waxing eloquent against Muslims to target Congress for the purpose of winning votes is now forming an alliance with TDP and JD(U) which are in favour of affirmative action for them.

Hollowness of his claim of consensus

Modi, who was bad-mouthing Muslims during election speeches, flagged sarv mat (consensus) and sarv dharma sambhav (coexistence of religions) after getting support from TDP and JD(U).

What he did has a close parallel with the folklore aphorism of a cat that, after eating a thousand rats, undertook a pilgrimage. Yet, despite this verbiage, the fact remains that Modi's cabinet continues to be without any Muslims. So his opportunistic emphasis on sarv mat and sarv dharma sambhav falls flat in the face of the non-inclusivity of his cabinet.

It is instructive to note that in most parliamentary constituencies where Modi delivered hate-filled speeches, the BJP suffered defeat.

People are watching

The people of India are closely monitoring Modi's words and actions. Eventually, they will prevail in upholding the vision of India enshrined in the Constitution, which some BJP leaders claimed would be changed after Modi won 400 plus seats.

The wise electorate restricted Modi and his party, the BJP, at 240 seats, significantly less than the majority mark of 272 seats, and they made the issue of saving the Constitution an electoral issue.

Modi must eschew his divisive communal agenda which people have rejected and remain wedded to the Constitution which people have saved from his majoritarian assault.