Communal rhetoric targeting Muslims in Guj campaign: CPI(M)

The CPI(M) today accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of pulling the election campaign in Gujarat down to the "lowest levels of vituperative communal rhetoric and scare-mongering, targeting Muslims".
In an editorial in the latest edition of party organ 'People's Democracy', former general secretary Prakash Karat said Modi's election speeches were marked by a string of allegations and canards meant to create a communal imagery of Muslims and to link them to Pakistan.
"The Gujarat election campaign has witnessed the lowest levels of vituperative communal rhetoric and scare-mongering targeting Muslims. The main culprit for this base campaign is Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself," he wrote.

The editorial criticised Modi for his remarks on Pakistan's alleged role in the polls.
"The worst canard was to insinuate that a dinner organised by Mani Shankar Aiyar for a visiting former foreign minister of Pakistan was an occasion for Pakistani meddling in the Gujarat elections," it said.
Modi's claim that former prime minister Manmohan Singh was involved in this "dinner conspiracy" was "truly despicable", Karat wrote.

"It showed a reckless disregard for constitutional proprieties and the vulnerabilities that the high constitutional office is subjected to in the hands of a person like Modi," the Communist leader said.
Karat claimed during Modi's tenure as the chief minister of Gujarat, he "many a times brought up a Muslim name" and alluded to a Pakistan link during the elections.

"But as a prime minister, his taking such communal targeting to new heights is alarming and disturbing," he said.
The editorial also slammed Modi for his remarks on Rahul Gandhis expected elevation to the post of party chief. Modi had last week "congratulated" the Congress on its Aurangzeb raj at an election rally in Gujarat.