Hyderabad: An Islamophobic video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi dogwhistlling against Muslims that was posted by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) official Instagram handle has been taken down after massive outrage by several users. It is not sure whether the BJP deleted it, or whether it was removed after users reported against it.
The animated video, which had a voice over, featured Modi and reiterated pretty much the same falsehoods the Prime Minister had stated in his earlier public speeches in Rajasthan in the run up to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections which is being held in different phases. In the video, Muslims were called “infiltrators” and it repeated the same thing – that the Congress will “redistribute wealth” if it comes to power.
Posted on Tuesday, April 30, the BJP video said that the Congress manifesto was the same as the Muslim League (of Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah). More importantly, the video, which called for Modi’s re-election, claimed that the Congress would “snatch the wealth of non-Muslims and give it to Muslims”, a statement hat Modi himself made last month, which also drew widespread criticism.
Modi in his speech in Banswara (Rajasthan) last month pretty much called Muslims “infiltrators” and the video posted by the BJP also directly targetted the community. It also showed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi holding his party’s, which in the animation changed to a green-coloured flag with the crescent and star – a symbol considered as an Islamic flag.
The video by BJP shocked many people especially on Instagram where it garnered over one lakh likes within a day. Outraged by such a post in the run up to the General Elections, many censured Modi and the BJP, while others simply stated that this was surprising given that Modi himself made similar statements earlier.
In the video, the BJP, in typical right-wing fashion, also invoked the sage-old stereotypical narrative that ancient India was robbed of its glory by Muslim invaders. The animation included visuals of temples and a queen-like woman which was soon followed by visuals of Muslim men in horses. The voice-over expectedly claimed that India’s prosperity was lost as “invaders, terrorists, robbers and thieves used to come again and again, used to loot all our treasures”.
It is evident that the BJP is bent on making it seem like the Congress is a Muslim-centric party, and is trying to antagonize voters against it. The video ends with the sentence, “Narendra Modi knows of this evil plan. Only he has the strength to stop it. If you really care about the Bharatiya civilisation, you need to go out and vote for Modi. ApkiBaar400 is the absolute need of the hour.”
It is to be seen if the Election Commission is petitioned again over this, just like opposition leaders and the public flagged Modi’s earlier statements for hate-speech.
