Poster wars: Congress says BJP wants to murder Rahul Gandhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are locked in a heated battle on social media over posters. Taking its turn to return a visual barb, the BJP released a poster portraying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as Ravan, the demon king from the Ramayana. Following this, Congress stalwart Jairam Ramesh slammed the BJP, accusing it of attempting to provoke violence against Gandhi, whose father and grandmother were assassinated.
Why does this story matter?
The BJP's poster against Gandhi came a day after the Congress shared posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its X handle (formerly Twitter) calling him "The Biggest Liar" and "Jumla Boy" in an apparent parody of Hindi movie posters. The Congress's poster titled "Jumla Boy" was captioned, "Going to hit election rally soon," taking a dig at PM Modi for conducting rallies in the poll-bound states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana.
Here's Congress's poster targeting PM Modi
BJP's controversial poster
The BJP's poster of Gandhi that enraged Congress leaders was titled "Bharat Khatre Mein Hai (India is in danger)," which had the caption, "The new age Ravan is here. He is evil. Anti Dharma. Anti Ram. His aim is to destroy Bharat." The poster further read "A Congress party production" and "Directed by George Soros," attacking American billionaire Soros, who has been critical of the BJP government. Notably, the Congress has also slammed Soros for his comments on Indian democracy.
BJP hit back with poster against Gandhi
Congress leaders condemn BJP's Ravan poster
Ramesh said the real intent behind the "atrocious graphic" against Gandhi was inciting violence, adding that Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi were "assassinated by forces that want to divide India." "It is one thing for the PM 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," he added.
BJP wants to murder Gandhi: KC Venugopal
Several other Congress leaders also voiced their disapproval of the BJP's Ravan poster, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and KC Venugopal. Venugopal said, "Their nefarious intentions are clear, they want to murder him. He, who lost his grandmother and father to assassinations. They withdrew his SPG protection to score petty political points. After evicting him from his...residence, they haven't allocated another house that he has requested." Both parties have previously released cartoon strips targeting each other's leaders on social media.
