NEW DELHI, May 16: Indias main opposition party on Thursday condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for anti-Muslim comments in election campaign speeches that have heightened concerns over sectarian tensions in the worlds biggest democracy.
Modi remains popular across much of India and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win this general election when it concludes in early June.
Since voting began last month, the 73-year-old premier has stepped up his rhetoric targeting Indias main religious divide in a bid to rally voters.
He has referred in campaign rallies to Muslims as "infiltrators" and claimed the main opposition Congress party would redistribute the nations wealth to Muslims if it won.
P. Chidambaram, a former Indian finance minister and senior lawmaker for Congress, said Thursday that Modi was playing "his usual game of dividing Hindus and Muslims".
"The world is watching and analysing the Indian prime ministers statements, and they do not bring glory to India," he added.
After Modi suggested that a former prime minister from Congress had planned for a separate "Muslim budget", the partys general secretary Jairam Ramesh condemned his statements as "nonsensical".
"This is typical Modi bombast and bogusness," he said Wednesday on social media platform X.
Since he swept to power a decade ago, Modi has sought to align Indias politics more closely with its majority faith, in defiance of the countrys officially secular constitution. —AFP
