India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a new message for supporters on the campaign trail: God has chosen him.
“I’m convinced that God has sent me for a purpose, and when that purpose is finished, my work will be done,” he told local news channel NDTV in an interview last week. “This is why I have dedicated myself to God.”
Modi continued: “God doesn’t reveal his cards. He just keeps making me do things.”
Since assuming power in 2014, Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have promoted a strident brand of Hindu nationalism in a country where about 80% of the population are followers of the polytheistic faith.
And while he has used such language in the past, his message of being a leader chosen by God has become much more apparent as attempts to win a third consecutive five-year term in power.
Throughout India’s mammoth weeks-long national election, which declares results on June 4, Modi has given multiple media interviews and speeches that echo the comments made to NDTV.
He took on the role of an openly religious Hindu, said Subir Sinha, director of the SOAS South Asia Institute at the University of London. This “gathered supporters who were proud of this religiosity,” he added. But until now, post-independence leaders have been publicly secular, partly to avoid the appearance of subordination to one side in a country with a long history of inter-religious violence.
“(He is) said to be the first prime minister who is not ashamed of this belief,” Sinha said.
Ten years ago, when Mr. Modi first ran for office, he chose Varanasi, India’s spiritual capital, as his constituency, seeing the ancient capital as the perfect backdrop to combine his religious and political ambitions. did.
“Mother Ganga has called me to Varanasi,” PM Modi said at the time, referring to the holy river Ganges, which many believers consider to be the body of the Hindu god Ganga.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Modi stood on its shores and reiterated his personal sanctity.
“Until my mother was alive, I believed that my birth could be biological,” Prime Minister Modi told UAE Breaking . “But after her death, when I looked back on my life experiences, I was convinced that God had sent me here.”
God had made him “just a tool,” Modi said.
Prime Minister Modi’s biggest display of divinity came in January this year when he consecrated Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir, a controversial Hindu temple built on the site of a destroyed mosque.
A signboard celebrating the temple’s opening featured an image of the Hindu god Ram next to Prime Minister Modi’s face, with the Bharatiya Janata Party leader even calling him the “king of the gods.”
Prime Minister Modi fasted for 11 days in a cleansing ceremony before the event and visited temples across the country to perform sacramental rituals for India’s majority faiths. He publicly called himself an “instrument” of Lord Ram, chosen by God “to represent the entire Indian nation.”
At the consecration ceremony, PM Modi led the ‘puran pratishta’ (unveiling of the much-awaited Ram idol), assuming a role usually reserved for a priest.
During the campaign, Mr. Modi also accused Muslims, who have been part of India for centuries, as “invaders” and criticized some who say Muslims are driving out India’s Hindus. It took advantage of a false conspiracy by Hindu supremacists to create a controversy over hate speech. -Population growth by intentionally creating large families.
The incident caused widespread anger among Islamic leaders and opposition politicians, prompting calls for an investigation by electoral authorities. A BJP spokesperson later said that PM Modi was talking about illegal immigration. The Election Commission has asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to respond to the allegations.