Fear and disgust outpours centering Modi’s divisive speech

Hatred sparks in Pm’s Speech

Narendra Modi is an Indian politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of India since May 2014. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right-wing political party in India. Modi was the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 before assuming the role of Prime Minister.

In Banswada, Rajasthan April 21^st Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged hate speech invoked congress’ propaganda of redistributing land, property, gold to those who are considered the “infiltrators.” During his speech while invoking congress’ election manifesto and former PM Manmohan singh’s speech back in 2006 which apparently stated “Muslims have right over resources, we’ll gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children, Modi asked the cheering crowd “ should your hard earned money be given to infiltrators that would take away even mangalsutras if given a chance.

Who are the infiltrators? Muslim asylum seekers and refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar are in particular targeted as “infiltrators. Who allegedly increase the population superfluously. In contrast with Modi’s statement fertility rate of muslims along with the fertility rate of other communities have been drastically declining over the years.

Statistical representation of Hindus and Muslims infertility rates

Statistically, the gap between the fertility levels of Hindu and Muslim women has sharply reduced from 0.81 to 0.42 in the two decades.  According to NFHS-5, TFR among Hindus was estimated to be 1.9, while among Muslims it was 2.4. However, according to james and rana (2021), declining fertility in India encompasses all religious groups including Muslims, which have historically recorded higher fertility than other communities, have also recorded a faster decline in fertility in recent years. Using 2011 Census data, an earlier study by Ghosh (2018) observed that in districts where Hindu fertility was high, Muslim fertility was also high, and where Hindu fertility was low than Muslim fertility was also low – signifying that it was not religion that influences the level of fertility. 

            TFR among Hindu and Muslim populations, (1992-2019)

                                  Source- (ideasforindia.in)

             Estimates of TFR from 1992 to 2019

                   Source- (ideasforindia.in)

The above table reveals that the decline in TFR was faster among Muslims compared to Hindus at an all-India level during this period. This decline among Muslims was the highest in Delhi, followed by West Bengal, while among Hindus, it was the highest in Uttar Pradesh. During 1992-2001, while TFR increased among Hindus in Bihar and Jharkhand, it declined among Muslims in the same states. During 2001-2011, even though the pace of decline was very high, across religions and in majority of the study states, it was relatively higher among Muslims compared to Hindus in some states like Delhi. During 2011-19, the decline of TFR across India was more than 5 percentage points higher among Muslims than Hindus. It was found to be the highest among Muslims in Assam, while among Hindus, the decline was highest in Delhi. The pace of decline of TFR was the slowest in Bihar during the said period, at only 0.67% among Hindus, while it increased among Muslims by around 10%.

Critics on Modi’s alleged hate speech

 Critics state that Modi’s comments are built on a divisive campaign of Hindu Nationalism has been associated with the ruling party since the beginning of it’s term. In light of Sunday’s remarks, opposition leaders are calling for the election commission of India to investigate whether Modi’s speech breaches it’s code of conduct, Which stipulates that politicians cannot appeal to voters on the basis of “caste” and “communal feelings” nor can they run campaigns which perpetuate communal or caste based hatred. Oppositions have filed complaints against Prime Minister over his remarks, facing alleged rejections on the way. Many have started stating that India is becoming a country of “particular concern.” Question is “is the rightist government really only the appeaser of hindus?”