BJP & SIR: Muslim Demonization & Polarization in India

The ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has given the BJP a fresh excuse to intensify its politics of hate. Under the garb of sensitising people about SIR, the partyS social media handles have indulged in unabashed communal stereotyping, scaremongering and Islamophobia. 

SIR is a constitutional process overseen by the Election Commission of India. It is indeed aimed at refining the electoral rolls by removing deceased voters, duplicate entries, migrants, or invalid entries, and ensuring that all valid, eligible voters are included. This process is supposed to be more thorough than the annual summary revisions, and involves door-to-door verification by appointed booth-level officers (BLOs) who distribute enumeration forms and collect updated voter information.The last SIR took place in 2002. 

Although SIR is in no way meant to identify illegal immigrants or target minorities,the BJP has succeeded in steering the entire discourse surrounding SIR into a communal one by demonizing muslims. It is indeed being portrayed as an exercise that will protect Indian Hindus against Muslims. The BJP west Bengal’s official X account, in particular, has been sharing posts vilifying the community on a regular basis.

Islamophobic Posts by bengal BJP

On November 18, the official West Bengal BJP X account shared an animated cartoon contrasting two scenes labelled as “Then” and “Now”. In the “Then” frame, Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, is depicted welcoming individuals in stereotypically Muslim attire  – men donning a skullcap and a woman in a burqa, who are portrayed crossing the border and entering West Bengal from Bangladesh while brandishing weapons. The “Now” frame, captioned “SIR started in west Bengal”, depicts the same figures returning to Bangladesh. The image is titled, “The difference is clear”.

This post is accompanied by a caption, “SIR – how it protects you from the demographic invasion from Bangladesh”. The post implies that Muslims from Bangladesh had entered India with malicious intentions and contributed to what the post claims as “demographic invasion”. It further suggests that the implementation of SIR will overturn this alleged trend by identifying and expelling Muslim infiltrators.

SIR – how it protects you from the demographic invasion from Bangladesh‼️ pic.twitter.com/QHGkgttgaw

– BJP West Bengal (@BJP4Bengal) November 18, 2025

Another animated video shared by Bengal BJP features Goopy and Bagha, popular characters from Bengali children’s literature created by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. in the video, thay are transported to a futuristic version of Bengal, where the streets are populated by men wearing skullcaps and lungis, and shop signs are written in Urdu.

Goopy asks bagha, “What kind of future is this? what is this language? Who is in power here? Where have we arrived? Is this realy the future of Bengal?” A local man, dresse

BJP’s West Bengal Unit Uses Videos to Fuel ‘Intruder’ Narrative Ahead of Elections

The BJP’s West Bengal unit is employing social media videos that subtly hint at a demographic shift, aiming to galvanize voters against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) ahead of upcoming elections. These videos, circulating on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, focus on linguistic nuances and perceived behavioral differences to suggest the presence of “illegal infiltrators” from Bangladesh.

One video posted on November 29th features a fruit seller addressing female customers as “Apu” – a term commonly used in bengali Muslim households – before correcting himself to “didi.” The seller’s use of “pani” rather of “jol” (both meaning water) and his distinct dialect, not typical of Kolkata, are highlighted. The video then cuts to two women speculating that the seller is a recent “intruder” from Bangladesh, claiming 1.5 crore such “illegal infiltrators” reside in West Bengal and are casting votes using fake voter cards.

A similar video on instagram depicts a woman frustrated by her househelp’s unexplained absence. Her husband attributes this to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) – referred to as “SIR” in the video – and questions the househelp’s identity, noting her use of “basha” (a term for house common among Bengali Muslims) instead of “bari” (the more common term in Kolkata). He also mentions the disappearance of a local greengrocer and his family.

These videos,while not explicitly stating accusations,rely on coded language and suggestive narratives to fuel anxieties about changing demographics and perceived threats to the cultural identity of west Bengal. The BJP West Bengal account initially removed the first video following criticism, but later reintroduced it.

BJP posted another video on Instagram implicitly linking “intruders” to Muslims. The video depicts a family exhibiting stereotypical Muslim identity-markers — a man and two boys wearing skullcaps and lungis, and a woman in a burqa, inside a room adorned with what appears to be Islamic verses. In the animation, the woman wakes her husband up, urging him to get ready, as the election commission is conducting SIR. Rapidly, the entire family is depicted as fleeing through a barbed-wire border with several others.

A lit mosquito coil appears in the frame whose fumes form “SIR” inscribed bubbles, metaphorically equating Muslims with mosquitoes in an explicitly dehumanising trope.

In another video, a thresher is shown operating in a field resulting in the pigs fleeing. This video has been titled, “SIR se ghuspathiyo meh deshad”, which can be translated into English as, “SIR is causing fear within the infiltrators”. The video is accompanied by a caption, ”See who is suffering the most from SIR in Bengal and the whole country?”

Thus, ahead of the 2026 elections in West Bengal, the BJP is weaponising the SIR process to demonize Muslims, reiterating that “infiltrators” are encroaching upon the country’s land and are responsible for all the ill-doings in the country.In their portrayal of the “infiltrators”, the depiction without fail is of a Muslim.

The othre Constant: X’s Failure to Curb Such Content

Apart form the brazen communal vilification, the other constant about these posts is the platform’s (in this case, X) failure to curb content that clearly violates its policy.

X’s policy against hateful conduct prohibits content that “incites behaviour targeting individuals or groups belonging to protected categories”. The policy states that content “inciting fear or spreading stereotypes about protected categories — including claims that members of these groups are more likely to engage in dangerous or illegal activities” — is not acceptable.

it also says, “We prohibit the dehumanisation of a group of people based on their religion, caste, age, disability, serious disease, national origin, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”

The above mentioned content shared by Bengal BJP and Delhi BJP on X, which dehumanises and vilifies a minority group, is a clear example of the kind of content X proclaims to prohibit. Their prolonged existence on the platform and massive traction prove the ineffectiveness of X’s policy.

ALSO READ: Scrolling through Assam BJP’s X handle: An exhibition of hate, xenophobia & anti-Muslim propaganda

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