India election: will Pakistan-bashing again become a rallying call for Modi’s BJP?
- Analysts say with momentum already with the BJP, any alleged Pakistani interference and support for Rahul Gandhi is unlikely to swing voter support
- Opposition has so far failed to capitalise on the BJP’s vulnerability, while Pakistan’s domestic woes mean it is unlikely to carry out militant attacks, they add
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his top aides have accused opposition leader Rahul Gandhi of allegedly receiving support from rival Pakistan over a social media post, but analysts say the spectre of Islamabad again at the polls is muted this time.
New Delhi had five years ago launched warplanes in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan territory, where it claimed to have killed militants who were planning to strike targets in India.
Analysts said that strike sparked a swelling of nationalism for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win a second term, but in this election round, any alleged Pakistani interference would only be a side issue as momentum was already on the side of the BJP.
The recent controversy erupted when Pakistani politician Fawad Chaudhry, a minister under former prime minister Imran Khan’s government, in the midst of the ongoing election in India posted on social media X a video of a speech by Gandhi – where he criticised Modi for not focusing on uplifting the poor – saying “Rahul on fire”.
The post triggered the ire of the Hindu nationalist BJP, which has previously accused the opposition Congress party of having been soft on separatist militants in Kashmir – the Himalayan province at the centre of decades of dispute between the two neighbours.
In an election rally in Palamu, Modi said Pakistan had been shaken by the air strikes in Balakot and was now praying that the Congress “shehzada” (prince) would become India’s prime minister, alluding to Gandhi.
But India wanted a “strong country with a strong PM”, he said.
