The CPI-M has accused the BJP of taking recourse to communal rhetoric in the ongoing assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
"The BJP's election campaign in Uttar Pradesh is unfolding true to form," said an editorial in the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy".
"Led by (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (BJP President) Amit Shah, communal rhetoric is in full flow and the staple diet of majoritarian communalism is being dished out," it said.
It blamed Modi for saying that where there is a kabristan (graveyard) in a village, then it must have a shamshaan (cremation ground) too.
"This is nothing but playing upon the well-worn theme of 'minority appeasement' and the imagined victimhood of the majority community," the Communist Party of India-Marxist said.
"Modi had no compunction in resorting to falsehood to portray the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh as pampering the Muslims."
More From This Section
"For the BJP, the purveying of the communal outlook and creating Hindu-Muslim divide is part of its political project and its quest for a Hindu consolidation," it said.
"This is supplemented by the use of caste alignments and identities in Uttar Pradesh.
"The fact that the Election Commission has not taken suo-moto cognizance of the speeches of Modi and Amit Shah shows how the communal discourse is now becoming acceptable in mainstream politics."
--IANS
mr/