EC Says “No Comment” On PM Modi’s “Mangalsutra To Muslims…” Speech Targeting Congress

This 'urban Naxal' mindset, mothers and sisters, they will not even leave your 'mangalsutra'. They can go to that level, PM Modi said.

After repeated queries on action taken against remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his poll speech in Rajasthan, a spokesperson for the Election Commission (EC) said, “We decline to comment.” The Prime Minister’s speech in Banswara created a furor over its divisive and communal contents.

PM Modi on Sunday suggested that if the Congress came to power, it would redistribute the wealth of people to those “who have more children”, referring to Muslims, and cited former PM Manmohan Singh’s remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country’s resources.

Former PM Manmohan Singh in one of his speeches had said that the first right to India’s resources belong to the marginalised communities like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the minorities, but the BJP has spun the sentiment often to claim that Singh believed that the country’s resources should first be given to Muslims.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission had issued a notice to former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, asking him not to use certain campaign terms such as ‘Hindu’ and ‘Jai Bhawani’, a request he promptly rejected, insisting that a similar notice should be directed towards PM Modi first.

“This ‘urban Naxal’ mindset, mothers and sisters, they will not even leave your ‘mangalsutra‘. They can go to that level… The Congress manifesto says they will calculate the gold with mothers and sisters, get information about it, and then distribute that property. They will distribute it to whom – Manmohan Singh’s government had said Muslims have the first right on the country’s assets,” PM Modi said at the rally.

“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. It will be distributed to the infiltrators. Should your hard-earned money go to the infiltrators? Do you approve of this?” he said.

“Is it acceptable to you? Do governments have the right to confiscate your property which you have earned through hard work? The gold with our mothers and sisters is not for showing off; it is related to their self-respect. The value of their mangalsutra is not in gold or its price, but is related to her dreams in life. And you are talking about snatching it?” PM Modi said.

According to the then Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Dr Singh had said, “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 revitalised. 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 overall resource availability.”

The PM’s reference to “first claim on resources” refers to all the “priority” areas listed above, including programmes for the upliftment of SCs, STs, OBCs, women and children and minorities, the PMO had said.

Leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc called PM Modi’s speech an attempt to divert attention from “real issues”. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post on X that the Prime Minister’s remarks in Rajasthan amounted to hate speech and were aimed at diverting public attention. “The country’s 140 crore people won’t be misled by lies. Our manifesto talks of equality, justice for all,” he said.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that PM Modi has been telling “lies after lies” just to win elections.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who is also a part of the Opposition bloc INDIA, “Not only the country but the whole world also knows Prime Minister Narendra Modi lies, the way how he spread lies about the Congress’s ‘Nyay Patra’ and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is an example of dirty politics.”