Days before India’s elections end, The London Story, a Europe based civil society organisation has sounded the alarm bells on how the India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and allied organisations have persistently, in violation of Indian electoral law, used disinformation narratives against Indian Muslims.
The largest democracy in the world, India, is currently undergoing elections, with nearly 1 billion eligible voters. But political candidates as well as their supporters have perpetuated a climate of fear and distrust against religious minorities, particularly Indian Muslims, which is bound to leave a lasting impact in a country plagued by religiously motivated vigilante violence.
A speech by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warning about “Vote Jihad” made international headlines and drew condemnation: In it, Modi spread a dangerous narrative that Muslims have launched a jihad against India during elections – and that their democratic participation must be stopped.
“What we see in India today is a teaser of what is to come. Similar narratives of ‘Muslims voting tactically against the Hindu majority’ have been weaponised before. This led to the exclusion of 1.9 million people from the citizenry in a single state within India – Assam. We are today sounding the alarm bells over the future of democratic participation in all of India.”
Dr Ritumbra Manuvie, The London Story
The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by India’s Election Commission (ECI) stipulates: “There shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes. Mosques, churches, temples or other places of worship shall not be used as forum for election propaganda.” The MCC also prohibits the use of temples/mosques/churches/gurudwara or any place of worship or religious text/ symbols/ or slogan in posters, music etc. for electioneering. Additionally, under Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act, political candidates are prohibited from promoting, or attempting to promote, on grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language, feelings of enmity or hatred, between different classes of the citizens of India.
Since then, political candidates for Modi’s party – the BJP – and their network of Hindu supremacists have added “Vote Jihad” to the list of divisive rhetoric they have used throughout the past decade to frame Muslims as ‘outsiders’ to India.
The London Story took a look at their social media to see just how pervasive Islamophobic disinformation is in the political discourse reaching millions of voters.
“Such political speech suggests an intention to promote exclusionary policies and laws after being elected. This has already happened, with Islamophobia becoming law in India in several instances”, the report cautions, adding, “We sound the alarm bells over the threat of exclusion of India’s minorities from the country’s democratic processes.”
The full report can be accessed on The London Story website thelondonstory.org.
