Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called Muslims “infiltrators” who would take India’s wealth if his opponents gained power – unusually direct and divisive language from a leader who normally lets others do the dirtiest work of polarizing Hindus against Muslims.
Mr Modi, in his address to voters in the state of Rajasthan, referred to a comment once made by Manmohan Singh, his predecessor from the opposition Indian National Congress Party. Mr Singh, Mr Modi claimed, had “said that Muslims have the first right to the wealth of the nation. This means that they will distribute this wealth to those who have more children, to infiltrators.”
Addressing his emotional appeal to women, Mr Modi addressed “my mothers and sisters” to say his opponents in Congress would take their gold and give it to Muslims.
These kinds of implications – that Muslims are having too many babies, that they are coming for the wives and daughters of Hindus, that their very nationality as Indians is being questioned – are often made by representatives of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.
The use of such language by Mr Modi himself as he campaigned for a third term raised alarm that it could inflame right-wing vigilantes targeting Muslims, and raised questions about what prompted his shift in communication style. Normally, Mr. Modi avoids even using the word “Muslims,” coyly finding ways to refer indirectly to India’s largest minority group of 200 million people.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress party chairman, called Mr Modi’s comments “incitement to hatred”. Asaduddin Owaisi, who represents the only national party for Muslims, lamented how “ordinary Hindus have to fear Muslims while their wealth is used to enrich others.”
Tom Vadakkan, a spokesman for the BJP, said Mr Modi’s speech had been misinterpreted. “This is not about our compatriots, the Muslims,” he said. Mr. Modi only talked about “infiltrators,” Mr. Vadakkan said.
The Prime Minister’s fiery speech, delivered in 100-degree heat in the city of Banswara in arid Rajasthan, contrasted with the picture he paints in international contexts.
During a visit to the White House in June, Mr. Modi said there was “no discrimination” in India. When he hosted the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi three months later, he chose the theme “the world is one family” (in Sanskrit, the main liturgical language of orthodox Hinduism).
He put his own face on soft-power outreach programs such as World Yoga Day, broadcast from Times Square, and used it to present a Hindu-centric India as a benign “teacher to the world.”
Campaigns that divide Hindus and Muslims could be useful in galvanizing the far-right Hindu base of Modi’s otherwise broad electorate, especially in places like Banswara, where Hindus outnumber Muslims three to one.
With his comments, Modi may have sought to bridge a rift that has emerged among Hindus in Rajasthan over whether they should support the BJP, with a prominent group protesting comments made by a party official.
But the Prime Minister’s speech was clearly also intended for a wider audience; he shared a clip on his official social media channels.
The BJP remains the favorite to win another parliamentary majority when six weeks of voting end on June 1 and ballots are counted three days later. Mr Kharge, the Congress party chairman, called Mr Modi’s speech – perhaps hopefully – a sign of desperation, adding that opposition candidates must do well in the early stages of the election.
Neerja Chowdhury, columnist and author of “How Prime Ministers Decide,” echoed Mr. Kharge, saying that, in her view, “voters are expressing their dissatisfaction much more openly this time.” The BJP is capable of a quick course correction, she added, because “they get feedback very quickly.”
Rahul Gandhi, the public face of the Congress party, said Mr Modi’s comments were intended as a distraction from issues on the minds of ordinary voters such as unemployment and inflation.
The fact that the prime minister alluded to religion at all in his speech led to complaints that he may have violated Indian election rules.
Candidates should be prohibited from seeking votes in the name of religion or caste. But BJP leaders regularly invoke Hindu deities at campaign rallies. The country’s election commission, which enforces the rules, has taken little action against the party, although it has taken action against members of other parties in similar cases.
Uddhav Thackeray, a former ally of Mr Modi who has now turned against the BJP, said he would now defy an Election Commission order to remove the word “Hindu” from his own party’s campaign song.
The basis for Mr. Modi’s attack was a 22-second excerpt from a statement that Mr. Singh, a Sikh economist who was prime minister before Mr. Modi, made in 2006. Mr Singh had identified many of the traditionally disadvantaged groups. in India, including Hindus and lower-caste tribes, and “particularly the Muslim community,” and said everyone should share fairly in the country’s wealth.
Since Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, Muslims have not had a proportionate share in India’s steady economic and social development. None of the 430 candidates fielded by the BJP in the current elections are Muslims.
Mr Singh’s 2006 speech now seems old, but it was delivered under Mr Modi’s watch just four years after the riots in the state of Gujarat. Hindus and Muslims chopped and burned each other and at least a thousand people died, most of them Muslims.