In recent times, the social media posts of the saffron party suggest that it is not concerned about upholding the rights of several sections of the country's minorities, be it religious or political.
Published Jun 09, 2025 | 7:07 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 09, 2025 | 7:07 PM
Social media posts by the BJP.
Synopsis: Recently, the social media posts of several state units of the BJP have been openly flaunting hate against minorities, especially against the Muslim community, even using representations of pogroms that the country yearns to forget.
The Government of India (GoI), elected by the people of the country, is bound to uphold the Constitution and protect the rights of the people. The preamble of the Constitution, following the 42nd Amendment Act of 1976, states that India is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic.
And accordingly, the Union government is supposed to follow the principles without any discrimination. However, the ruling party, especially the primary constituent of the NDA — the BJP — seems completely unaware of its job.
In recent times, the social media posts of the saffron party’s state units have been taking communal jibes targeting minority Muslim community.
The social media posts of several state units of the BJP openly flaunt hate against minorities, especially against the Muslim community, even using representations of pogroms that the country yearns to forget.
On Bakrid (Eid al-Adha), the West Bengal unit of the BJP posted a wish on its official X handle. “Eid Mubarak to those who celebrate !” it wrote.
What seems to be a heartfelt wish changed its tone when the image used for it was of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in an Islamic outfit. Critics argued that the image was a dig at Muslims as well as the chief minister, whom the saffron party brands as a person who is engaged in Muslim appeasement and is anti-Hindu.
It may be recalled that during the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the BJP Karnataka released an animated video titled, Beware…Beware…Beware…!, which claimed that the Congress have been taking away the wealth of lower caste Hindus and giving it away to Muslims. After the Congress government filed a case against the BJP leaders, the post was deleted.
On 23 May, the X handle of BJP Karnataka posted an image depicting Union Home Minister Amit Shah holding a cauliflower over a gravestone that reads “RIP Naxalism”.
It was posted as a response to a press statement by the CPI(ML) condemning “Operation Kagar” – a joint operation by the paramilitary, state police, and various security forces in the forests of Chhattisgarh, adjoining Telangana, in which officials said 27 ‘Maoists’ were killed.
What is problematic in the image was Shah holding the cauliflower. Among the Hindutva right followers in India, especially those associated with the Sangh Parivar, cauliflower is a call for genocide against Muslims.
It refers to the 1989 Bhagalpur anti-Muslim riots in which over 900 people were killed. In the village of Logain, 110 Muslims were killed and buried in a farm. It is well known that cauliflower saplings were planted over their dead bodies.
In 2022, in a post on X captioned Satyamev Jayate (truth alone prevails), a caricature was shared by the official handle of the Gujarat BJP featuring a dozen skull-capped and bearded men in white kurtas being hanged.
When critics drew comparison with Nazi caricatures, the tweet was taken down by Twitter and the party said that they were not targeting any particular religion and that the cartoon was based on real incidents – a Gujarat court convicting terrorists for the 2006 Ahmedabad blasts.
Another post that triggered backlash against the saffron party was made by its Chhattisgarh unit, following the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
Making a Ghibli-style image of a harrowing moment during the terrorist attack on 22 April, the X handle of the Chhattisgarh BJP wrote in Hindi, “Dahram poocha, Jaati nahi (asked religion, not caste)”.
The post was an apparent dig at Muslims, since the attack was targeted at Hindus, by othering the community and calling for “unity among Hindus”. It was also aimed at the Congress, especially the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, for raising the demand for a caste census.
However, a few days later, on 30 April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a caste census. Later, he said the caste enumeration announced as part of the decennial census was a step towards his government’s model of bringing the marginalised and those left behind in every field into the mainstream of development.s
The social media posts and the discourse of BJP supporters making the Muslim community “others” is not surprising since Prime Minister Modi himself uses pejoratives against them during election rallies. The most recent one was made on 14 April.
Modi criticised the Congress party’s policies regarding the Waqf Board and said, “If it had been used as per its purpose, then today, my Muslim youth would not have had to spend their lives fixing punctures on bicycles.”
“Puncturewalas” — people who fix punctures — is a common slang term used by Hindutva right and BJP leaders as a slur against working-class Muslims in India.
