Modi's toxic speech at Banswara in Rajasthan on March 21st

[Sukla Sen]

<https://youtu.be/7LWA-rP5TKw>

(From 28.39 to 29.54 mins.)

["Tum use chhinane ki baat kar rahe ho apne manifesto mein. Gold le lenge, aur sabko vitrit kar denge. Aur pehele jab unki sarkar thi to unhone kaha tha, ki desh ki sampatti par pehela adhikar Musalmano ka hai. Iska matlab, ye sampatti ikhatti karke kisko batenge…..jinke jyada bacche hai unko batenge…Ghuspaithiyo ko batenge. Kya apki mehenat ki kamayi ka paisa ghuspaithiyo ko diya jayega….Apko manzur hai ye… Ye congress ka manifesto ke raha hai ki wo matao aur beheno ka sone ka hisab karenge, uski jadti karenge, jankari lenge aur phir uss sampatti ko baat denge. Aur unko batenge…jinko Manmohan Singhji ki sarkar ne kaha tha ki sampatti par pehela adhikar musalmano ka hai. Bhaiyo beheno.. ye urban naxal ki soch.. mere matao aur beheno ye apka mangal sutra bhi bachne nahi denge”

English translation:

You [Congress] are referring to grabbing of that [gold and property] in your manifesto…They will take the gold and distribute it to all. When their [Congress] government was there, they had said that Muslims have the first right over country’s property. Whom they [i.e. Congress] will distribute to after accumulating the property? They will give to people who have more children … will your hard earned money be given to infiltrators… Do you accept it? This is what congress manifesto says that gold of mothers and sisters will be accounted, searched and inquired and then it will be distributed.. to Muslims, whom Manmohan Singh ji had said has the first right over property. Brothers and sisters, this is urban Naxal mentality… my mothers and sisters, they [Congress] will not even leave your mangalsutra.”]

That's, unmistakably, the theme song.
How so very nauseating!
How so very toxic!
How so very chilling!

Just think of it that it's coming out of the mouth -- yeah, "mouth" -- of the Prime Minister of the country! (In order to make sense, also watch: <https://x.com/NadeemRamAli/status/1782079435048624453>.)
And, forget not, it's just a part of the "trailer".

But that's, in a way, a bit reassuring too?
If this stinking and putrid venom is meant to do the magic of Pulwama-Balakot this time, then it probably also shows the sense of deep insecurity despite all the rosy (manufactured?) opinion surveys?

In this context, what Manmohan Singh had actually said is: I believe our collective priorities are clear: agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, 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 will need to be revitalized. 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 a myriad other responsibilities whose demands will have to be fitted within the over-all resource availability.

(Look up: <https://archivepmo.nic.in/drmanmohansingh/press-details.php?nodeid=516> and for the video clip of the complete speech pleading for "sustainable (and equitable) development": <https://youtu.be/d5KZ0Irx3AY?si=asg_36OB36OKy5fT>.)

Let's also, in this context, look up what ground rules the Model Code of Conduct, now in force all over the country, has laid down for the conduct of the poll campaigns:
I. No party or candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic.
II. There shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes.
(Ref.: Paras 1.1 and 1.3 at <https://tmp.eci.gov.in/mcc>.)
And the Election Commission itself, only on this March 1st in the run-up to the launch of the current election process, in a routine exercise, had "asked parties and their leaders to refrain from seeking votes on the basis of caste, religion and language." (Ref.: <https://www.business-standard.com/elections/lok-sabha-election/don-t-seek-votes-on-basis-of-caste-religion-language-ec-to-parties-124030100850_1.html>.)
What a nasty joke!!!

So, to sum up, Modi was just not spewing routine Sanghi venom, he was also deliberately dishing out a bundle of blatant lies.

I. Manmohan Singh's speech has very much been grotesquely distorted.

The former Prime Minister, in his speech, had specifically listed out "SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children" as those disadvantaged deserving special attention. And pretty much in sync with that flow of speech he had loftily pronounced that Muslims, in particular, "must have the first claim on resources" so as to ensure that they "are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development." Apparently, in acknowledgement of the sorry state of affairs with the bulk of Indian Muslims as had vividly been brought out and highlighted, over six years back, by the Sachar Committe appointed by the UPA Government at the beginning of its first term (ref.: <https://casi.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/iit/Minority%20Report.pdf>).

No whatever talk of depriving any other disadvantaged sections -- let alone women -- to benefit Muslims. Not by the furthest stretch.

2. Similarly, the Congress manifesto promises caste survey to find out the numbers and also the pattern of assets and wealth distribution among various castes so as to devise appropriate measures to ensure social justice. This is commitment having particularly the OBCs in mind.

Nowhere it talks of snatching away the ornaments, let alone the Mangalsutras, of any women.

Again a grotesque distortion.

3. This is nothing entirely new.
He had employed essentially the very same trick at least once in the recent past. 
On December 10 2017, the day after the first phase of two-phase polling of then ongoing poll campaign for the Gujarat assembly, he quite out of the blue in a public meeting in Palanpur (ref.: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V3njOKLn8k>, 12.23 - 16.23 mins.) levelled the grave charge of treason against various Congress leaders, including the preceding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on the ground that they have confabulated and conspired with senior functionaries from Pakistan to install (now deceased) Congress leader Ahmed Patel as the Chief Minister of the State. Interestingly, while the charge was announced from a public platform -- by the incumbent Prime Minister of the country and no less, no legal-administrative action would follow, just none. The stunned Congress resorted noisy protests and, eventually, Arun Jaitley, on his behalf, would drop the charge on the floor of the Rajya Sabha, just over a fortnight thereafter, tendering a half-apology (ref.: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V3njOKLn8k>).
But, by that time, the Gujarat poll process was well over, and the intended purpose very much served.

So, hurling of wild and even absurd charges against his adversaries to gain political advantages, while occupying the august seat of the Prime Minister of the country, is a sort of his signature style.

4. Apart from mouthing absurd lies, he has also, in his speech, identified all -- to be sure, all --Indian Muslims as "infiltrators" and producers of too many kids.

5. The implications are too ominous. It shows he can go how low and how casually.

Moreover, the demonetisation, without any meaningful consultation either with the RBI Chairman and his Economic Advisor, and even more than that the Balakot air raid -- the only such air raid against a nuclear power till date -- have amply demonstrated that he is in no way a risk-averse person. In fact, far from that.

6. Protests have been and are being lodged with the Election Commission of India and even FIRs are being filed by a number of individua citizens, civil society organisations and political parties including Congress, CPIM, CPI(ML) (ref.: <https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/elections/take-action-against-modi-for-violating-law-and-model-code-of-conduct-opposition-tells-ec/article68094830.ece>).

7. A moment of adversity, quite often, also is a potential moment of opportunity.
Of course, Modi's deliberate abuses are very much designed to turn the poll into a Hindu-Muslim slugfest. 

The opportunity offered by this latest spurt of nastiness, and the public outrage that it has triggered, has got to be explored to the fullest while carefully averting the alluring trap laid by him.