The Congress on Thursday said the BJP's projection of Rahul Gandhi as Ravana betrayed an intent to murder him, adding another dimension to the plunging levels of verbal duelling between the two principal political parties ahead of critical elections in five states.
The BJP had earlier in the day posted on X an image seeking to portray Rahul as Ravana with the message: “The new age Ravan is here. He is Evil. Anti-Dharma. Anti-Ram. His aim is to destroy Bharat.”
The poster added the warning "Bharat Khatre Mein Hai (India is in danger)" and proclaimed that the image purporting to mimic a poster was of a movie that was "A Congress Party Production directed by George Soros". Soros is a billionaire investor and Right-wing bugbear.
The Congress general secretary in charge of organisation, K.C. Venugopal, said: “No words are enough to condemn the shameful graphic on the BJP handle comparing Rahul Gandhi to Ravana. Their nefarious intentions are clear, they want to murder him. He lost his grandmother and father to assassinations.”
Venugopal added: “They (the Narendra Modi government) withdrew his SPG protection to score petty political points. After evicting him from his secure residence, they haven’t allocated another house that he had requested. All this points to a well-planned conspiracy of the BJP to eliminate their fiercest critic, someone who attacks the very core of their hate-filled ideology.”
While the social media units of both parties have often flirted with the limits of decency to attack each other, posting messages and animated films to run down the talismans of either side, the slugfest has now reached a new low of political discourse.
Although the Congress had angered the BJP by calling the Prime Minister “Jhoothon ka sardar (King of lies)”, the Opposition parties' leaders felt describing Rahul as anti-Hindu and anti-Ram who wanted to destroy Bharat was a false and baseless allegation having the potential of inciting passions.
The Congress linked the Ravana poster with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, drawing attention to a cartoon that had been published in a magazine run by Nathuram Godse.
Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh posted the cartoon that showed Mahatma Gandhi as the hydra-headed Ravana, with the other heads showing the faces of other stalwarts of the freedom struggle, and said: “This cartoon was published in the Agrani magazine in 1945 edited by Godse. One of the persons aiming the arrow at Gandhi is (V.D.) Savarkar. Gandhi and Congress have always been their target. But we were neither scared then, nor are we now. In the future too, we won’t be scared of them.”
Ramesh added: “What is the real intent of an atrocious graphic portraying Rahul Gandhi as Ravana by the BJP’s official handle? It is clearly intended to incite and provoke violence against a Congress MP and a former president of the party whose father and grandmother were assassinated by forces that want to divide India. It is one thing for the Prime Minister to give evidence daily of being a pathological liar and of suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder. But for him to get his party to produce something this obnoxious is not just completely unacceptable, but is downright dangerous. We will not be intimidated!”
Though the Congress avoided paying the BJP back in its own coin, the Youth Congress later responded with a cartoon that showed Modi as a monster. The youth unit said: “The new age MODANAV is here. He is evil. Anti-Democracy. Anti-Constitution. Anti-People. Anti-Humanity. His only aim is to destroy Bharat and the idea of India.”
Earlier, the Congress’s social media handlers had uploaded an animation purporting to project Modi as Gabbar Singh, which appeared to many not to be in sync with its proclamations of decency.
