Sculptor Anish Kapoor compares Modi to Mugabe

Mumbai-born British sculptor Anish Kapoor has spoken out against the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, saying he will provide a "morally questionable leadership".

The award-winning artist, who has been based in London since the 1970s, said, "I am not the first one to point out that India has always been a secular state and Narendra Modi just takes too partisan a view and has shown himself to be, at the very least, associated with terrible riots and death."

"The whole matter of Modi's guilt or otherwise is before the courts. India has huge number of problems. We aren't going to solve them by giving morally questionable leadership," Kapoor told BBC World Service radio in a rare interview for its World Update show

Asked by the show's presenter Dan Damon about Modi's argument about looking to the future, Kapoor added: "If we don't accept such [similar] arguments from [Zimbabwean dictator] Mugabe, why should we from Modi... I think we have to be watchful of the past. We can't just put the past behind us and say it's done with."

The Turner Prize winning artist, who was awarded a knighthood by the Queen last year, has been a vocal critic of the Gujarat chief minister.

In September 2013, he had urged the UK government to withdraw an invitation for the senior BJP leader to visit Britain.