The party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed a cartoon video from social media on Wednesday after it was criticized for disparaging Muslims of color in the midst of a national election that was still going on.
The electoral code of India prohibits campaigning through “communal” incitement; yet, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has regularly used the nation’s primary religious division as a rallying point.
Caricatures of opposition politicians plotting to end specific affirmative action programs for marginalized Hindu groups and give them to Muslims were featured in the animation, which was uploaded by an official BJP account.
The “objectionable” post broke Indian law, according to a letter sent by the electoral commission to the platform’s Indian office on Tuesday.
The original post vanished from the site on Wednesday, along with a notification indicating it had been removed.
The opposition Congress party lodged a police complaint alleging that the film encouraged “enmity between different religions.”
Similar claims to the video have been made by Modi in campaign appearances since last month. Modi is widely anticipated to win a third term in office when the six-week general election concludes next month.
He has called Muslims “infiltrators” and “those who have more children” in public remarks, drawing criticism from opposition lawmakers who have lodged complaints with election authorities.
He reiterated on Tuesday that his political rivals will “snatch” affirmative action measures intended to help underprivileged Hindus and give them to Muslims.
Even though India has a nominally secular constitution, Modi’s government has placed the country’s majority faith at the center of its politics, which has contributed significantly to his continued popularity ten years after taking office.
As a result, the more than 220 million Muslims who live in India are becoming more and more concerned about their future there.
A voiceover in a controversial animated video released by the BJP on Instagram last month threatened to “snatch all the money and wealth from non-Muslims and distribute them among Muslims, their favorite community” should the opposition win power.
After multiple viewers reported the video for “hate speech,” it was taken down.
