Twitter takes down Gujarat BJP post featuring caricature of Muslims being hanged

 Twitter on Sunday removed an offensive post by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Gujarat unit that featured a cartoon depicting a group of Muslim men being hanged in in the wake of Friday’s court verdict that sentenced 38 people to death in the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts case.

The background of the cartoon showed the tricolour and the scene of the blasts. “Satyamev Jayate [Truth alone triumphs],” the caption to the post read. “No mercy to the perpetrators of terror.”

The tweet has been taken down for violating the platform’s rules on hateful imagery.

As of Monday morning, several posts featuring the cartoon could be seen on Facebook. Some accounts on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, have also posted the cartoon. As of Monday morning, the posts have not been taken down. Several people who objected to the post on Facebook got a response from the platform stating that the caricature did not violate its community standards, according to Boom Live.

Gujarat BJP’s media convenor Yagnesh Dave claimed that the caricature was made on the basis of reports in newspapers and news channels, and did not intend to target any community, The Indian Express reported. He argued that all newspapers and channels had shown images of the convicts and the caricature was based on them.

The Congress’ spokesperson in Gujarat Manish Doshi said that no party should engage in politics on court judgements in sensitive cases, The Hindu reported. He alleged that the BJP was seeking to polarise people in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

“We all know that terrorism has no religion, and no one knows it better than the Congress which has lost two former prime ministers to it,” Doshi said.

The Gujarat BJP put out the tweet five days after the party’s unit in Karnataka tweeted the names and addresses of some of the girls who have moved the High Court seeking permission to wear hijabs in educational institutions. Sharing minors’ identities without their consent contravenes sections of the Juvenile Justice Act, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Indian Penal Code.

The Karnataka BJP later deleted the tweet.

The verdict

On February 18, a special court in Gujarat sentenced 38 of the 49 convicts to death in the bomb blasts case. Special Judge AR Patel sentenced the rest of the accused persons to life imprisonment.

As many as 22 explosions ripped had through the city of Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, leaving 56 dead and over 200 injured.

The police had claimed that people associated with the banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen were responsible for the serial blasts. Indian Mujahideen is a faction of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India.