New Delhi: An animated video shared by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s official Instagram handle on Tuesday (April 30) which directly named and targetted Muslim Indians has been removed on May 1.
As The Wire reported, the BJP video pushed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s central assertions that the Congress, if elected, would distribute Hindu wealth and property to Muslims – whom it describes as the opposition party’s “favourite community”.
While it is unclear at the moment whether the video was taken down by the party itself or by Instagram, a large number of Instagram users said that they had reported the video for ‘false information’ and ‘hate speech’. One such used received a notification from Instagram saying, “Thank you for letting us know about bjp4india’s post. It looks like it has already been removed. Please let us know if you see anything else that concerns you. Reports like yours are an important part of making Instagram a safe and welcoming place for everyone.”
The Election Commission of India has come under severe criticism for refusing to act on the BJP’s blatantly communal campaign ahead of the 2024 elections, even those asking for votes in the name of religion and promoting communal disharmony violate the Model Code of Conduct and the Representation of the People Act.
The video shared on Tuesday said, “If the Congress Party comes to power, it will snatch all the money and wealth of non-Muslims and distribute it to Muslims. Their favourite community!” It went on to repeat the same untruth Modi first uttered on the campaign trail – that former Congress prime minister Manmohan Singh had said Muslims have the first claim on resources.
The BJP’s video then repeats the falsehood that the Hindu Right has been propagating ever since it has existed:
“Ancient India was really beautiful. We were so rich and prosperous that each and every average citizen had plenty of gold. Plenty of wealth. Plenty of riches. And it was precisely because of our prosperity that invaders, terrorists, robbers and thieves used to come again and again, used to loot all our treasures. They used to redistribute the loot among themselves. And on top of that they used to ruin our temples. And the Congress Party has been empowering people who belong to the very same community.”
This is not the first blatantly communal video shared by the BJP ahead of the polls. In mid April, the Telangana BJP released a video that showed Pepe the Frog – an animated character used by the alt-right in the US and co-opted by Hindutva social media users – and using it to refer to Muslims and historical rulers in India. The video also celebrated the destruction of the Babri Masjid.
