Senior Indian Politicians Censured for Hate Speech as Election Begins

India’s Election Commission has punished one of the ruling party’s most prominent Hindu nationalist politicians for religious hate speech just days after the country’s tense general election began.

The Election Commission of India condemned comments from Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu priest appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party to run the country’s most-populous state. The agency issued a 72-hour ban on campaigning and said in a statement his “highly provocative” speech was likely to “create mutual hatred between different religious communities.”