According to a report published in India Tomorrow, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been using Sri Lanka bombings for his electoral gains. His statements have been condemned by several rights activists and intellectuals.
In a recent election speech in Chittorgarh he mentioned the SL bombings, and went on to say that if Indian voters “want to avoid such attacks they should vote for the BJP”, because only he can defeat the terrorists and ensure national security in the region.
In a terrorist attack in Sri Lanka that claimed more than 250 lives, including 13 Indians, Modi is using the death toll to his advantage, to garner votes in the name of national security, at a time when public sentiments in India are all-time high post-Pulwama attacks.
But concerned citizens and civil rights activists have denounced Modi’s irresponsible and insensitive statements, for using Sri Lanka bombings towards electoral gains, especially at a time when people are still trying to come to the terms with the loss of life in India’s neighbouring country.
Civil rights activist Dr. John Dayal termed PM’s move as shameful.
“Any senior leader of the world would be ashamed of himself to drive any political benefit from such a tragedy, that too taking place in another country. Mr. Modi has exceeded both the bounds of decency and the bounds of political propriety when he says that people must vote BJP in India to avoid this sort of terror explosions that took place in Sri Lanka,” Dr. Dayal told India Tomorrow.
Prof. Apoorvanand Jha, Faculty, Department of Hindi, Delhi University termed PM’s speech on Sri Lanka as an attempt to diversify the appeal of majoritarianism.
“What happened in Sri Lanka was heart-wrenching and regrettable. When even the Sri Lankan government is trying to assess whether the terror attack was carried out by an international group, PM Modi here did not waste a single minute in using the attack to his electoral advantage. I think this is not a new tactics of the party. They are trying to revive the atmosphere of fear and intimidation by pursuing politics of majoritarianism. A fear psychosis is being developed among the Hindu voters as they are being asked to vote BJP. This shows how low they can stoop to take advantage of a heinous attack like this which killed so many innocents, just for the sake of votes.”
Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Chairman, Delhi Minorities Commission, asserted that PM Modi has failed the nation on national security issues.
“Actually the BJP has realized that their old slogans are not working and therefore it has now falling on national security issue which is wrong. Under them (both Vajpayee and Modi governments), we saw so many terror attacks. Pulwama is of course the only recent one of them. Kargil War also happened because of the failure of our intelligence community. Even pogroms like Gujarat 2002 happened under their watch, so I cannot say that the country is safe in their hands. The country is not safe in their hands. Actually the country is in danger in their hands. People who use national security to gain votes really don’t deserve your votes,” Dr Khan said.
