Amid the ongoing Jharkhand elections, the second phase of which is scheduled on November 20, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come up with hate videos targeting Muslims in the guise of campaign advertisements. This is not the first time that the right-wing party is resorting to such anti-Muslim rhetoric in its campaign videos. 

During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, there were at least three such bigoted videos put out by the BJP, depicting Muslims as ‘infiltrators’ and people who ‘snatch’ the resources of others.

In the first of the two latest videos of BJP, there are four characters, closely resembling Opposition leader and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Kalpana Soren and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav. The video begins with the characters resembling Hemant and Kalpana; the latter is shown as a materialistic person eagerly looking at ‘branded’ watches. 

As a BJP political advertisement on television asks how the people of Jharkhand benefited under the JMM government, his look-alike addresses a man in the room as ‘Bengali Dhadha’, asking him to prepare falsified data for a press conference to combat the claims in the news.

The second scene goes on to show characters resembling Tejashwi Yadav, Hemant and Rahul Gandhi. The latter is shown eating jaebi and saying, “Today, my mother told me that when my grandmother was the Prime Minister, she had forces open fire at Jharkhand statehood revolutionaries and eleven Adivasis were killed. She was amazing.” 

To this, the Tejashwi Yadav look-alike responds by saying, “Even in Bihar, she banned Adivasis from carrying weapons like bows and arrows. My father had said that if Jharkhand is formed, it would be on these (tribal) people’s dead bodies.”

Then, Hemant Soren’s look-alike says, “This is what politics is. Now, we hypocrites will pose as Jharkhandis and seek votes, and these people will help us,” pointing to four Muslim men wearing skull caps. The Muslim men enter the room and say ‘Adab’ – a term of greeting used by Urdu speakers.

The video ends with the caption: “Each promise is false. Hemant Soren has looted Jharkhand. We must defeat greed and hypocrisy. This time, lotus must bloom in Jharkhand.”

Following this video, the Congress filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI), based on which a case has been registered at the cybercrime police station in Ranchi. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the video “brazenly and blatantly violates the ECI's Model Code of Conduct” and was also “an act of serious criminality”.

The second video shows a house with a JMM banner hanging at the entrance. Inside the house, a family is seen sitting together having a pleasant time – the grandparents tuning into a radio and the parents and a child about to have their meal, when the doorbell rings. When the door is opened, a huge crowd of Muslims, including women and children, enter the house and ravage it. 

The family is seen covering their noses, suggesting that the ‘intruders’ smell bad. Further, the Muslims are shown occupying the entire house and even making places untidy. Then, the owner of the house talks to two men saying, “It is our house that they are destroying”, to which the men, who seem to be Hindus with lower income respond: “The government you voted for has brought them here. So, your house also should get destroyed, not just our settlements.” The video ends with the statement: “Even a single mistake will make everyone pay the price. Now go ahead and try voting in the BJP.”

For years, BJP’s electoral strategy in Jharkhand has centred on pitting the tribals who follow Sarna (an indigenous religion that worships nature) against the Christian tribals. However, this time around, the party decided to focus on Muslims, including those who lived in the state for generations, painting them as ‘Bangladeshi’ infiltrators.