A short commentary by IISS's South Asia expert, Rahul Roy-Chaudhury and here are two passages:
At the same time, anti-Pakistan rhetoric featured often in the campaign, in marked contrast to Pakistan’s own general elections a year ago, during which there had been little anti-India rhetoric in the political mainstream. On April 19 BJP parliamentary candidate Giriraj Singh reportedly stated that those who opposed Modi should be sent to Pakistan. In response to this ‘hate speech’, legal cases were launched against him, but he was ultimately granted bail.

An unseemly public spat with Pakistan also occurred. In a Gujarati television interview at the end of April, Modi suggested he might consider undertaking cross-border covert action against Pakistan to pursue a terrorist such as Dawood Ibrahim. In response, Pakistan’s interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali claimed that Modi had made an ‘irresponsible statement’ and that such action by a prime minister would ‘destabilise’ the region. The BJP subsequently denied that Modi had spoken of attacking Pakistan. In a subsequent interview with a leading English television channel, Modi suggested that talks with Pakistan could not take place if there was cross-border terrorism.


Link:https://www.iiss.org/en/iiss%20voice...-campaign-5e65