Sami Ahmad, TwoCircles.net
Patna: A meme by the Karnataka wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) following elimination of Maoists by security forces left many worried, as they felt that it celebrated not only the deaths of the guerrillas but also the massacre during the infamous 1989 Bhagalpur riots in Bihar. At least 110 Muslims were butchered during the violence, and cauliflower were grown over their buried bodies.
Advocate Warisha Farasat and legal activist and researcher Pritha Jha in their book titled ‘Splintered Justice: Living the Horror of Mass Communal Violence in Bhagalpur and Gujarat’ wrote, “The Logain (Bhagalpur) massacre case was one of the few that reached the High Court, perhaps because its extreme brutality had etched it in the national memory. Logain in Jagdishpur was home to 150 Hindu and 20 Muslim families. For over nine hours on October 27, 1989, nearly 4,000 Hindus laid siege to the village and went on a spree burning, looting, pillaging and killing 116 Muslims.”
“They first threw the bodies into a local pond, and later into two wells. The stench, however, forced the killers to remove the bodies from the wells. They then buried them in nearby fields and planted cabbage over them. All this was done under the direct command of the local police officer, ASI Ram Chandra Singh.”
The meme depicts a smiling Union Home Minister Amit Shah putting a cauliflower on a milestone with “Naxalism, Rest in Peace” written on it.
The controversial meme was posted online by the Karnataka BJP’s official handle on May 23 in response to the concerns raised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) or CPI (ML) over the killing of the general secretary of the CPI (Maoist), Keshav Rao, and the other insurgents and alleged Adivasis in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur and Bijapur districts – terming it a “cold-blooded extra-judicial killing”.
CPI(ML) wrote on X, “From the celebratory post of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, it is clear that the state is spearheading Operation Kagar as an extra-judicial extermination campaign and taking credit for killing citizens and suppressing Adivasi protests against corporate plunder and militarisation in the name of combating Maoism.”
Interestingly, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was quoted on April 5 this year as saying, “You (Naxalites) are our own people. Nobody enjoys if any Naxalite gets killed.”
He made the statement in Dantewara.
PUCL National President Kavita Srivastava described the meme as “extremely objectionable”. “We all need to condemn and call out the BJP Karnataka for the use of the cauliflower as a symbol for a poster, which celebrates the recent killings of Naxalites.”
She went on to add, “Showing a smiling Home Minister Amit Shah, holding a cauliflower, is a sinister attempt to actually attack the Adivasis, Naxalites and also Muslims.”
“The chilling manner in which the BJP Karnataka used this symbol also targets Muslims at the same time. A clear message to the Muslims that, like in Logain, Bhagalpur, you too can be reduced to this,” she said, adding that the meme needs to be withdrawn from the public domain.
Social and cultural activist Uday, who has worked with the victims of the Bhagalpur riots, called the meme a “vulgar expression” of a national party that is problematic on two accounts.
“One may agree or disagree with Naxalism, but it must be acknowledged that Naxalism is an ideology and process for social change. The government’s duty is to protect the Constitution. If any group adopts unconstitutional methods, the government certainly takes cognizance of them. So far, governments have assumed that Naxalites have gone astray and have adopted a policy of engaging in dialogue with them and accelerating development work in Naxal-affected areas. However, this image depicts them being insulted,” he added.
He said the meme “also attempts to convey the message that just as we killed Muslims, buried them under the soil and grown cauliflower, the same has been done and will be done with Naxalites”.
With this image, according to him, the BJP is also revealing its approach and mindset toward dealing with its opponents and dissenting groups.
Mahmood Alam, a resident of Bhagalpur and a former JNU scholar, said that the Karnatak BJP’s meme was extremely gruesome.
“The meme has a resemblance to the 1989 massacre of Muslims in Bhagalpur. I can recall the incident that took place in Tamauni and Babhura regions of the district, where the a large number of Muslims was massacred, their corpses buried in the fields and the perpetrators planted cauliflower over their bodies.
“The cauliflower is a symbolic gesture of this regime to convey the message that they can kill anyone with impunity. It’s extremely horrifying,” he added.
D.M. Diwakar, former director of A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies, said that the meme was very problematic and Bihar must be very wary of it. Asked as to why the JD (U) ignores such posts by the BJP, he said, “The JD(U) led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has lost its social confidence and surrendered before the BJP to remain in power.”