Delhi Violence Unmasked: Part Two: How Modi’s speeches fomented hate, aided Hindutva mobilisation against anti-CAA protesters – By Sagar

The sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act began on 15 December 2019, four days after it was passed in Parliament. That day, the prime minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Jharkhand’s Dumka district and implicitly accused Muslims of committing arson during the protests against the CAA.

“The ones setting things on fire, their pictures are coming on television,” Modi said. “Who are these arsonists? They can be identified from their clothes only.” The comment was a thinly veiled reference to the Muslim community.

Exactly one week later, the prime minister Narendra Modi held a rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. He accused the opposition parties of misleading the public and claimed that the law would only grant citizenship, and did not seek to take it away from anyone…. These speeches, and others by him and his subordinates in the party, appear to have played a major role in shaping the Maujpur mob’s understanding of the citizenship law and the protests against it….

https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/part-two-how-modi-speeches-fomented-hate-aided-hindutva-mobilisation-against-anti-caa-protesters