On Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released a poster of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi online, sparking a war of words between Gandhi’s party and the BJP.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the party shared a film-poster-like creative that depicted the Congress leader as Ravan. The post reads: “Ravan, a Congress party production, directed by George Soros.” Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist George Soros has become a target of the BJP due to his huge donations to groups across the world, which are seen as interferences in internal matters. Just like Ravan, Gandhi is shown with multiple heads, wearing body armour. “The new age Ravan is here. He is Evil. Anti Dharma. Anti Ram. His aim is to destroy Bharat,” the BJP said in the post on X.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in a post on X questioned the saffron party over the post that he claimed was intended “to incite and provoke violence” against Gandhi. “No words are enough to condemn the shameful graphic on the BJP handle comparing Rahul Gandhi ji to Ravana. Their nefarious intentions are clear, they want to murder him. He, who lost his grandmother and father to assassinations,” Congress organisation general secretary KC Venugopal wrote on X.
“They withdrew his SPG protection to score petty political points. After evicting him from his secure residence, they haven’t allocated another house that he has 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,” he added.
The BJP’s poster comes a day after the Congress posted on X a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the caption “The Biggest Liar”. Another post called Prime Minister Modi a “Jumla Boy,” who was “Going to hit the election rally soon”. In response, the BJP on its official X handle shared a poster of the Congress leader with several heads with the title “Bharat Khatre Mein Hai (India is in danger)—A Congress party production. Directed by George Soros”.
In an exclusive ground survey, India News on Friday asked respondents their opinions about the ongoing poster war—which is expected to heat up as several states head to polls soon. When asked about their opinions regarding Gandhi, 4.06 percent of respondents said they believed Rahul Gandhi is “anti-Ram” while 7.61 percent thought Gandhi is anti-Hindutva. A larger pecent (12.18%) considered him anti-national. The majority (51.28%) regarded the poster as a form of propaganda. As to whether the Bharat Jodo Yatra shifted their opinions on Gandhi shifted, 16.26 percent said they saw him as a potential future Prime Minister while a similar section (15.73%) viewed him as the face of the opposition. The majority (52.79%) reported that their opinion of him remained unchanged. However, the majority (42.56%) stated that they felt Gandhi was PM Modi’s biggest contender in the elections. This was followed by Arvind Kejriwal, at a far second (8.62%), Nitish Kumar (7.61%), and Mamata Banerjee (5.61%). Interestingly 35.06 percent of respondents said they could not decide. Lastly, when asked if it’s acceptable to use terms like ‘Ravan,’ ‘Kansa,’ and ‘Rakshas’ when referring to political opponents, 16.76 percent of respondents found it acceptable while the majority (78.68%) disagreed with using such terms. A small section (4.56%) were undecided on the matter.
