It is said that all is fair in love and war. It means people are said to be not bound by standard rules of behaviour when they are in love or war. Most politicians believe that this is also true in elections.

Even as the polling is entering the second stage in the general elections to the 18th Lok Sabha, the campaign across the country has turned extremely vicious and vituperative. Highly distressing signals indicate even a possible eruption of violence can't be ruled out soon in many parts of the country. Unfortunately, very important political leaders deliberately inflame political and communal hate among people who could be driven to take arms against each other.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unprecedentedly inflammatory speech on April 21 at a campaign meeting in Banswara, Rajasthan. “When the Congress-led government was in power, they had said that Muslims have the first right over the country’s assets. This means they will distribute wealth to those with more children and those who are infiltrators. Is this acceptable to you?... This Urban Naxal thinking will not spare even the mangalsutras of my mothers and sisters.”

Modi was referring to a speech made by PM Manmohan Singh 18 years ago. In his address to the National Development Council (NDC) in December 2006, Manmohan Singh said that our priorities should be to uplift the most depressed sections of society, such as the SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities, and women and children. These were his actual lines; “I believe our collective priorities are clear: agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, a critical investment in rural infrastructure, and the essential public investment needs of general infrastructure, along with programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children. The component plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes must be revitalised. We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources. The Centre has many other responsibilities whose demands must be met within the overall resource availability.”

This statement promptly provoked BJP leaders to spring into action and decry it as appeasement of Muslims. The then BJP President Rajnath Singh and........

© Mathrubhumi English