WHEN OTHER STICKS FAIL TO STIR THE POT

With its narratives on development and nationalism failing, the BJP has reverted to scare-mongering about Muslims. It presents a stark choice to the Indian voter

- SHASHI THAROOR

E VEN if the Election Commission lacks the courage or conviction to do it, the time has come for all Indians collectively to say to PM Narendra Modi: "You have gone too far, sir. In the name of decency, please stop." Inflammatory rhetoric, especially on communal and religious lines, is explicitly outlawed in the EC's Model Code of Conduct. Yet, its principal purveyor has been the PM himself. In harsh and immoderate language, he has embarked upon a fearmongering offensive, comparing the Congress manifesto to a document of the Muslim League, claiming it will divert SC/ST reservations to Muslims, and declaring the party will snatch away people's gold, even their wives' mangalsutras, and give them to Muslims. And then he doubles down on this allegation by claiming the Congress intends to confiscate half of everyone's assets right down to a buffalo if you happen to have two-to redistribute them to "infiltrators" who "have too many children": an obvious allusion to his Muslim fellow-citizens. He even dragged Mughal emperor Aurangzeb into his invective, claiming that Rahul Gandhi insulted Hindu kings but kept quiet about atrocities by nawabs, nizams, sultans and Aurangzeb.

What's going on? Aside from the PM demeaning his office by uttering such hatefilled words, the allegations are so farfetched, educated voters would consider them laughable. The Congress manifesto does not even contain the words "Muslim" or "redistribution". Nor was inheritance tax discussed, let alone proposed. Yet Modi has seized upon two stray remarks of Congress eminences to ascribe malign intentions to a party whose long track record in governance points to no such actions.