If Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, continues to treat the rising communal frictions in the country with the economy of words that he hopes will pass for condemnation, he needs to rethink his approach towards the minorities. Otherwise, he is in danger of being accused of electoral doublespeak. In fact, many political observers in India are already saying this. The rising numbers of provocations for India’s minorities over the last six months, brought on by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), speak for themselves: The risible comments of BJP loose cannon Yogi Adityanath during the Uttar Pradesh by-polls against Muslims, the shocking choice of epithets for minorities by Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, the Union Minister for Food Processing, communal riots in Delhi, Bawana, the murder of a Muslim software engineer by fringe Hindutva elements in Pune in June, a fire in a West Delhi church last month ... the list is growing. None of these incidents, however, despite their clear underlying message, have drawn anything but the most banal of comments from Modi, who characteristically breathes fire on all other issues. What is worse is Modi’s Independence Day speech in August, his first as Prime Minister, which distinguished itself by the rather bizarre moratorium of 10 years that he sought on sectarian violence. Why 10 years? And does he expect to complete two terms and leave with a clear conscience? Given his scant vigour on reassuring minorities during troubled times, that seems like a distant dream. All Modi has done so far is to make one wonder if he can ever rise above his personal ideology.