India’s ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been ordered to take down the anti-muslim election campaign ad.
The party has been hit with widespread criticism for promoting hate and bigotry against Muslims. The advertisement was released on Saturday as part of an election campaign in eastern India’s Jharkhand state. The ruling has been hit with a deluge of criticism during the ongoing state assembly elections.
The first phase of voting took place on 13 November, with the second phase scheduled for 20 November and results to be announced on 23 November.
The video advertisement shows a group of poor Muslims entering the house of the opposite supporters. The woman in the house is shown giving bad gestures as Muslims are depicted to be bringing bad odor into the house. Children are seen jumping and messing up with the furniture. Meanwhile, adult Muslim men and women in the group have taken over the house and are seen washing and drying up clothes in the center of the lounge.
“Modi’s BJP is using Islamophobic propaganda for election campaigning. India’s Election Commission has become too subservient to Modi to stop this madness,” Indian-Swedish academic Ashok Swain said in a post on X.
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Mehbooba Mufti, the leader of IIOJK, also condemned the advertisement on X. “BJP’s advertisement campaign in Jharkhand assembly elections should make Kashmiri leadership turn in their graves who despite Jammu and Kashmir being a Muslim majority state opted to join a secular democratic India. This choice was made with the vision of a pluralistic nation where all religions could coexist peacefully & honorably. This advertisement being deplorably communal contradicts the foundational ideals and secular fabric of the nation that they choose to be part of. Pure poison,” she said on X.
In response to the backlash, the Election Commission of India ordered the BJP to take down the advertisement from all of its social media platforms.