New Delhi, India – A tweet posted by India’s governing party has triggered controversy, with the right-wing party accused of mocking a phrase used by anti-citizenship law protesters.
India has witnessed nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by Parliament in December last year in the latest in a string of anti-Muslim policies pushed by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
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The slogan “Kaaghaz Nahi Dikhayenge Hum” (we will not show the documents) has reverberated through the more than seven weeks of protests, as a mark of defiance against the planned National Register of Citizens (NRC).
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) February 8, 2020
The government says it has yet to decide on the implementation of the NRC, but wants to go ahead with National Population Register (NPR), which critics say is a precursor to the NRC.
‘Utterly crude’
The BJP Karnataka unit on Saturday tweeted a video of burqa-clad Muslim women standing in a queue apparently outside a polling station in the Indian capital New Delhi, to cast their votes, with a caption: “Kaagaz Nahi Dikayenge Hum !!!. Keep the documents safe, you will need to show them again during NPR exercise.”
The tweet has gained over 31,000 likes and has been retweeted more than 10,000 times with many criticising the right-wing party for threatening protesters.
This is India’s ruling party, a group of extreme nationalists, openly mocking a phrase being used by dissenters and protesters across their nation to resist discriminatory policies. Somebody please remind the BJP that, in a democracy: Dissent in Patriotic. https://t.co/cvwddRohzr
— Audrey Truschke (@AudreyTruschke) February 9, 2020