Hate messages have mostly gone viral in the Hindi belt where the saffron party has a vocal support base.

Things seem to have become worse since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. That attack has been used to justify a wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric across India, with some right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders conflating support for Palestine with support for Hamas and painting all Muslims as “terrorists” or “terror sympathisers”.