Electoral laws flouted, opposition MPs arrested

In his bid for re-election, the Indian PM is ramping up sectarian rhetoric and weaponising state agencies against his opponents

Mahua Moitra is an opposition politician with the Trinamool Congress party

Abh ke baar 400 paar (“More than 400 seats this time”) has been the rallying cry of Narendra Modi’s election campaign, as voting for India’s 543-member lower house stretches on through the hottest months of the year.

The prime minister’s method of ruling a once vibrant and now wounded democracy relies heavily on a heady mix of religious polarisation, subservient institutions and the apparent misuse of state-controlled agencies against his opponents. On the campaign trail, he and his party have been busy peppering his speeches with anti-Muslim rhetoric, in a seeming violation of India’s election law, which expressly prohibits electioneering based on sectarian appeals to religion, caste, language or region.