Modi wants to turn the election into a Hindu-Muslim war

And the Election Commission of India is allowing it.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have decided that they will contest this seven-phase national election as champions of Hindu interests. They have also made it clear that protecting Hindu interests means protecting them from Muslims.

According to them, the Hindu majority face danger as the opposition Congress party is conspiring with the Muslim community to rob them of their wealth and entitlements and hand them over to Muslims.

On Sunday, the prime minister told a rally in Rajasthan that if the opposition comes to power, it will take Hindus’ wealth and give it to those “who have more children”, clearly referring to Muslims. He then went on to call the Muslim community “infiltrators”.

Modi’s comments caused outrage in some quarters. Citizens and organisations from across the country have asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take action against him for his hate speech.

The rights group People’s Union of Civil Liberties has even demanded that Modi be disqualified from contesting elections for that overt communal incitement.

These reactions did not result in any change of rhetoric; in fact, the prime minister doubled down two days later.

On Tuesday, in his address at another election rally in Rajasthan, Modi once again claimed that the Congress was conspiring to take the wealth of Hindus and distribute it among “select” people.

To ensure that there was no ambiguity, Modi went on to suggest that the Congress was going to take away the share of reservations – or quotas in education, employment, government schemes etc – for backward classes, scheduled castes, and tribal people and give it to Muslims. This was a clear