The use of hateful and divisive language by high-ranking politicians has increased almost 500 per cent in the past four years, an NDTV data collection exercise has found. Based on what we found, from May 2014 to the present, there have been 124 instances of VIP hate speech by 44 politicians, compared to only 21 instances under UPA-2, an increase of 490 per cent. And this is only in the fourth year of this government. Tonight, on a special episode of Reality Check: the results of our eight-week long investigation into how hate speech by VIP politicians has witnessed an alarming spike in the past four years.