Election Commission declines to comment on PM Modi’s Rajasthan ‘hate speech’

Election Commission declines to comment on PM Modi's remarks about Congress redistributing wealth to Muslims.

The Election Commission on Monday declined to comment on remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his poll speech in Rajasthan.

"We decline comment," a poll panel spokesperson said on queries related to the prime minister's speech on Sunday in Banswara.

Mr. Modi on Sunday suggested that if the Congress came to power, it would redistribute the wealth of people to Muslims and cited former PM Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.

In his remarks in Rajasthan, Modi had said, ”Earlier, when their (Congress) government was in power, they had said that Muslims have the first right on the country’s assets. This means to whom will this property be distributed? It will be distributed among those who have more children”.

Following the speech, the Congress dared Mr. Modi to show one paragraph in its manifesto where it talked about redistributing wealth to the Muslim community. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on X, said the Prime Minister had delivered the “hate speech” after realising that the INDIA block had won the first round.

Mr. Kharge alleged that lying for power and making baseless allegations about opponents were the values of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party combine that Mr. Modi has imbibed.

After the Opposition termed his remarks at a poll rally in Rajasthan as communally divisive, the BJP asserted Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a spade a spade and has echoed people’s sentiments.