Campaigning for the BJP towards the Delhi Assembly elections, the Modi Government's Minister of State for Food Processing, asked voters to choose between a Government of 'Ramzade' (sons of Ram) and 'Haramzade' (bastards). This was not just a case of the use of an abusive word. Questioned by a journalist, she elaborated her meaning on camera. She said that "Muslims and Christians are also sons of Ram – and if they don't believe this, they can't believe in the nation either."

As an outcry rose nationally demanding the sacking of this Minister, the Minister issued a vague and general 'apology' in case she had 'hurt anyone's feelings'. Subsequently, the Prime Minister told the Parliament to forgive and forget the Minister's lapse, since she was a novice, a first-time MP, and a village woman. The BJP also hinted that the Minister was being singled out and targeted by the Opposition because she was from an extremely backward caste.

The Prime Minister's explanation is an insult to the women of India's villages. Niranjan Jyoti's foul-mouthed hate-speech was not learnt by her in any village. It is systematically imparted by the RSS through its network of outfits. And this can easily be proved by looking at the track record of utterances of various BJP and Sangh leaders.

On 21st November 2013, a BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, Ram Pratap Chauhan made remarks identical to Niranjan Jyoti's – at the Vijay Shankhnaad Rally in Agra in the presence of Narendra Modi. Modi had also addressed the same rally, held to felicitate Muzaffarnagar riots accused Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana. Modi, at the time, made no objection to Chauhan's 'Ramzade/Haramzade' remark and his distinction between 'nationalist Muslims' who are devotees of Ram, and the anti-national ones who do not identify with Ram.

Ram Pratap Chauhan also repeated the very same 'action-reaction' hate-speech formula that Modi himself had voiced to justify the Gujarat 2002 communal pogrom.

In 2011, Subramaniam Swamy wrote an article in an English daily, advocating to "declare India a Hindu Rashtra in which non-Hindus can vote only if they proudly acknowledge that their ancestors were Hindus." In 2013, Swamy joined the BJP and is one of their most-seen faces on national television.

In July 2014, Goa's Deputy CM from the BJP, Francis D'Souza, said that "India is already a Hindu nation and all Indians in Hindustan are Hindus."

What is most offensive and unpardonable about Niranjan Jyoti's words is not just the abusive word 'bastards'. It is her declaration that non-Hindus who fail to identify as descendants of Ram, are not true citizens of India. This declaration goes against the spirit of India's Constitution. And this declaration is one that is routinely made by BJP leaders, including Ram Pratap Chauhan, Subramaniam Swamy or Francis D'Souza.

These are not random rants by individual maverick leaders. They reflect the core ideology of the RSS. The second RSS Sarsanghchalak, M.S. Golwalkar had written, “the foreign races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment – not even citizen's rights.” What Swamy or Niranjan Jyoti or Ram Pratap Chauhan say, is a mere paraphrasing of this openly fascist declaration by their hero, the RSS chief Golwalkar.

Golwalkar's successor, the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat said in August 2014, "Hindustan is a Hindu nation... the present inhabitants of the country are descendants of this great culture."

The divisive idea of a Hindu Rashtra where religious minorities will be denied equal citizenship, is a core principle and goal of the RSS and the BJP. But Modi as PM has to ask Niranjan Jyoto to avoid such utterances, thanks to the fact that this idea is violently at odds with India's Constitution. Niranjan Jyoti, addressing a rally in Trilokpuri in Delhi, an area recovering from communal violence fomented by the BJP, mocked at people who "took offence" to her remarks, and said that her message remained the same, but "a gesture is enough for the intelligent."

What emboldens hate-speech in India, is the fact that it has gone unpunished, even in the most blatant of instances.

Addressing an election meeting during Lok Sabha campaigns, the BJP President Amit Shah referred to Muslims as "the community that rapes our mothers and daughters." In the same election campaign, Modi himself referred to the Muslim community as "those who slaughter cows" (failing to mention, of course, that Hindu ritual in Nepal demands the mass annual slaughter of buffaloes).

In September 2002, during the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra post the 2002 pogrom, Modi himself asked, "Do we go and run relief camps? Should we open child producing centres? Hum paanch, humare pachees (We five, our 25) Is family planning not necessary in Gujarat? Where does religion come in its way? Where does community come in its way?" Modi, now India's Prime Minister, made this offensive reference to the relief camps for the riot-affected Muslims!

By allowing Niranjan Jyoti to remain in her post as Minister, Modi and his Government have proved that behind all their talk of 'development', sowing hate to reap votes remains a staple strategy of the BJP and its parent Sangh Parivar. The struggle to resist the politics of hatemongering and assert a robust democratic commitment to the Constitutional equality and rights for people of all faiths, will continue.