India's Modi accused of targeting Muslims in election speech
The Peninsula
New Delhi: India s main opposition Congress party filed a complaint to the Election Commission Monday accusingPrime Minister Narendra Modi of blatant...
New Delhi: India's main opposition Congress party filed a complaint to the Election Commission Monday accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "blatantly targeting" minority Muslims in a campaign speech.
The world's most populous country is constitutionally secular and its election code bans canvassing based on "communal feelings".
Modi's opponents accuse him of marginalising India's 200 million Muslim population.
The prime minister usually steers away from explicit references to religion -- the word "Hindu" does not appear in his Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 76-page election manifesto.
But at a weekend election rally in Rajasthan, Modi claimed a previous Congress government had said that "Muslims have the first right over the nation's wealth".
