On Sunday, Congress filed a complaint against Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, alleging that the video violated the poll code.
By Scroll Staff
A social media post by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karnataka unit on Saturday triggered outrage online, with critics attacking it for “demonising Muslims”.
The animated video captioned “Beware.. Beware.. Beware..!” in Kannada, featured caricatures of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah placing an egg with “Muslims” written on it in a nest alongside three eggs marked as “SC [Scheduled Castes], ST [Scheduled Tribes] and OBC [Other Backward Classes]”.
The video showed Gandhi feeding “funds” only to the bird, shown wearing a skullcap, as it hatches out of the “Muslim” egg. The bird pushes away the fledgings that hatched out of the other three eggs, followed by laughter.
The video posted on social media platform X as part of the Lok Sabha elections campaign triggered widespread criticism on the social media platform.
Actor Prakash Raj called the BJP’s post “shameless”. Raj said that “inclusive [and] peace loving Karnataka and our country” will teach the Hindutva party a “befitting lesson.. for your disgusting.. hate spreading.. communal politics..”.
Professor Nitasha Kaul, a British academic of Indian origin, wrote on X that the video was “a straightforward 1930s Germany-style cartoon”, referring to the propaganda by Nazi Germany during the period. “One of many violations of electoral conduct rules,” the professor of politics at the University of Westminster said.
She added, “This is a shame.”
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