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In an interview with media organisation News18, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that he had never used the words 'Hindu' or 'Muslim' in his campaign speeches, inferring that his speeches didn’t have communal tone. Quint Hindi looked into this claim in detail and found that the claim was not true.
Is the PM's claim true?: PM Modi has used these words plenty of times in his recent speeches. We went through all his speeches from the past week, and found that he had referred to Hindus or Muslims five times.
Additionally, since polling began on 19 April, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) official social media accounts have also used the words Hindu and Muslim several times.
What did PM Modi say?: In the interview with News18, anchor Rubika Liyaquat asks, "When you spoke about Muslims on stage, you referred to them as infiltrators, as people who have many children. What was the need for that?"
To this, he replies, "I am astonished, ji. Who said this? When we talk about people with more children, Muslims get linked with it. Why do you do this injustice with Muslims? They are not able to educate their children. Regardless of community, wherever there is poverty, there are more children."
In her next question, the anchor asks, "So you're saying that Muslims and the point about people having more children are not connected?" Responding to this query, PM Modi says, "I have neither mentioned Hindu nor Muslim. I just said that have as many children as you can take care of. Don't have so many that the state has to care for them."
Let us look at the recent speeches of the Prime Minister, in which he is heard saying 'Hindu' or 'Muslim'.
At the 9:25-minute mark, PM Modi says,
Around 23 minutes into his speech, PM Modi accused the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) of snatching reservations from backward classes and giving them to Muslims.
At the 19:47-minute mark, PM Modi said,
In this speech, after 11:14 minutes, the Prime Minister alleges that Hindus have been made second class citizens in West Bengal. Further, he also accuses the opposition of give reservations alloted for backward communities, to Muslims.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said,
At the 28:30-minute mark in his speech in Nandurbar, PM Modi says, "All the Muslims in Karnataka were made OBC overnight and an order was issued. The Chief Minister stamped. The biggest part of the reservation that OBCs get was looted by those who became OBCs overnight."
When we checked the social media handles of BJP, we noticed that the words Hindu and Muslim had been used many times in their posts. Most of the times, the words Hindu and Muslim were used in these posts while sharing the Prime Minister's speech. Let us see examples.
(Swipe to view examples.)
PM Modi spoke about reservations for Muslims.
PM Modi accused the Congress of minority appeasement.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke about Muslims.
PM Modi said that the Congress wanted to destroy Hinduism.
PM Modi spoke about Hindus in West Bengal.
BJP UP has shared several posts about religion.
It shared a quote about Muslim vote banks, by PM Modi.
The account shared UP CM Yogi Adityanath's statement on Hindus.
Adityanath has brought up religion during several speeches.
BJP Karnataka's account has previously shared communal misinformation.
This account shares posts about Muslims.
This post talks about Hindu women in Karnataka.
BJP Maharashtra's account shared Yogi Adityanath's statement.
Shah has equated Congress to the Muslim league.
Quint Hindi has reached out the the Prime Minister's Office regarding this claim. This article will be updated accordingly.
Conclusion: It is clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that he has not said Hindu and Muslim in his speeches is not true.
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