By Nirmala Carvalho
Lucknow (AsiaNews) – For weeks, northern India has been embroiled in a ‘poster war’: at the beginning of the month, the Muslim community displayed signs reading ‘I love Muhammad’ to mark the feast celebrating the birth of the prophet.
A few days later, large posters appeared with messages such as ‘I love Yogi Adityanath’, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, and ‘I love bulldozers’, vehicles that have become a symbol of his policy: officially against illegal occupation, but often used to demolish houses and shops in Muslim neighbourhoods.
The posters were put up by Amit Tripathi, secretary general of the local branch of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ultra-nationalist Hindu party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For the Muslim population, this is a direct provocation: ‘It’s not just a poster, it’s a message telling us that the bulldozer is against us,’ commented Mohammad Salim, a trader in Lucknow. Human rights organisations and minority associations have often denounced the practice of selective demolitions.
The story began in Kanpur, where on 9 September, during a Barawafat procession, banners with the words ‘I love Muhammad’ were displayed. Hindu nationalist groups protested against the banners and nine people were subsequently arrested by the police.
The officers reported that the action was not directed at the content of the message, but at the fact that the posters had been placed in an area usually reserved for other communities.
However, the removal of the banners in Kanpur then triggered a national campaign: in various cities, Muslim communities displayed posters and stickers with the words “I love Muhammad”.
The Indian authorities responded with harsh repression: as of 24 September, 21 complaints (First Information Reports, FIR) had been filed in four states, involving 1,300 people and leading to 38 arrests.
On 26 September, tensions erupted in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, where hundreds of Muslim worshippers had gathered to deliver a memorandum to the authorities at the invitation of religious leader Tauqeer Raza Khan.
This story was originally published in asianews.it. Read the full story here.
