Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Civil society body PUCL seeks FIR against PM Modi for 'anti-muslim hate speech'

The letter also urged the police to take concrete measures to prevent communal hate speech in Rajasthan.

Jaipur: Civil society organisation People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) has filed a complaint against Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate registration of FIR and strict action against him over his recent "anti-Muslim hate speech" in at an election rally in Banswara. However, no FIR has been lodged so far.

The complaint dated April 22, 2024, was filed at the Bajaj Nagar police station in Jaipur yesterday. 

Reminding that the Model Code of Conduct is in place amidst an election season, Kavita Srivastav, the president of PUCL, has written in her complaint that the hate speech made by Modi, that too from the highest office of the nation, is bound to have serious and lasting repercussions, apart from influencing the election on divisive and communal lines.

PUCL has further written that the speech was clearly aimed to promote enmity between Hindus and Muslims on ground of religion and community. 

The complaint urges the police to file FIR under Sections 153A, 153B, 295 (A), 505 (1) and 505 (2) and Sections 123 (3), 123 (3A) and Section 125 of the IPC.

The letter also urged the police to take concrete measures to prevent communal hate speech in the state. 

The complaint has been filed but till now no FIR has been lodged. “There is no FIR till now. We will pursue the issue doggedly till a FIR is lodged. But we all know how the situation is,” Kavita Srivastav told DH. 

The complaint said that the speech is clearly prejudicial to the maintenance of peace and harmony between different religious  groups in Rajasthan and in the country as a whole.

It also mentioned that Modi’s speech constitutes a deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings and adding insults to the religion and religious beliefs. "In a way, Modi’s speech is instigating Hindus against the Muslims by calling them ‘infiltrators," the complaint read.

The complaint said Modi’s speech was clearly made with an intention to cause and in any event likely to cause fear or alarm in one community against the other. The complaint further says the speech in effect is meant to provoke people from the majority community who bear a grudge against the minority, thereby inciting them to attack the minorities, even at a later stage, anywhere in Rajasthan as also the rest of the country.

It said the speech was deliberately delivered to polarise and incite a section of the public at large on majoritarian lines. 

PM Modi, in an election campaign for Banswara BJP candidate Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya on Sunday, April 21, had asked the crowd whether they were ready to surrender their hard-earned wealth and property to the government. He said that "the gold of my mothers, sisters" acquired over the years is not only for show but linked with their self-respect and dignity.

He went on to say that their Mangalsutra, made of  gold, is not just a question of money but is linked with their dreams and the Congress in its manifesto, talks about snatching this very gold and property and redistributing it. When the Congress was in power, they had advocated the “first right” of Muslims on the nation’s resources, which actually means, they will acquire the properties and distribute it amongst those who have more children. Would you allow the property to be distributed amongst the infiltrators?” He called the Congress ‘urban naxals’.