UP elections: Muslims came under the RADAR of extremists on social media as soon as BJP returned to power

The results of the elections held in 5 states including Uttar Pradesh were declared on 10 March 2022. In these elections, BJP was victorious in 4 states. However, it had to face defeat in Punjab. Nevertheless, this victory of the BJP is big because BJP has again won power in Uttar Pradesh, breaking the record of 37 years. Earlier this feat was done by Congress when it returned to power after winning the re-election.

Yogi 2.0 is going to start in UP after BJP’s return to power. But before Yogi Adityanath’s government was formed, anti-Muslim posts started being shared on social media. As the seats of BJP crossed the magic figure of the majority on March 10, the number of anti-Muslim posts on social media increased. An exclusive hatred was seen on social media towards the Muslim community, which was happening given Yogi Adityanath’s return to power again.

After the election results, speeches were given targeting Muslim society and their places of worship. Further, it was announced to forcefully remove loudspeakers from mosques. In many places, threats were made openly by putting up a stage. Amidst the growing hatred on social media, it is a matter of concern that no big leader of the BJP has criticized these statements nor appealed to their supporters to refrain from such statements. In this report, we will analyze the trend, and study the trend of hate posts against the Muslim community after the election results of March 10, 2022.

Anti-Muslim posts on social media:

Many anti-Muslim posts on social media were seen on 10 March 2022. That is, the day the results of 5 states including UP were declared, Muslims were fiercely targeted on social media on that day. Moreover, about 51.5 % of users posted hate posts on 10 March 2022. After this, on March 11, 30.3 percent, and after that on March 12, this figure reached 18.2 percent.

Tweets targeting the Muslim community:

Tweets were made on social media targeting the Muslim community. Here, we have selected some selected tweets from these tweets. Param in this @Rambhaktparm The user of the name wrote that- ” You will see, we will show… under Yogi Ji’s rule, all jihadists will pay jihadan, you will see, we will show… Apart from this, many tweets target Muslims. And, whose screenshots and links are given below.

Posts targeting mosques:

Given the BJP and Yogi Adityanath’s return to power, hatred was seen on social media about the mosques of the Muslim community. These posts demanded the demolition of the Gyanvapi mosque of Kashi and the mosque of Mathura. Moreover, some people appealed to Yogi Adityanath to run his bulldozer on the mosque of Mathura.

Wordcloud:

The word cloud tells us the most used words. These words include ” yogi “, ” masjid “, ” adityanath “, ” jihadi “, ” loudspeaker “, ” bulldozer “. etc.

Users Who Tweeted

Below the shows the users who tweeted on this topic. Some account like @RealPriyaRajput, @Bhagvadhari141, @hindurastra987, @MayurPa98074241, etc. is included.

Words used:

The words used with these posts were bulldozer, mosque, loudspeaker, jihadi, and katua or katue. Let us tell the readers that the word ‘Katua’ or ‘Katua’ is used as abuse for the people of Muslim society.

 Worldcloud Of The Twitter Users:

Below is a word cloud, which is the words written in the Twitter bio of the users who made such posts. The majority of them used the words like  ” Sanatan “, ” Dharma”, ” Yogi “, ” Shri Ram ” etc.

Conclusion:

That is to say, after the historic victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh, the people of the Muslim community were targeted by extremists on social media. Not only do they use abusive words against them, but they also provoked to demolish Muslim places of worship. Such posts are against the Indian Constitution and the democratic system. Though Posting such inflammatory posts is also a criminal offense. Although social media sites including Twitter and Facebook have been talking about taking action against hate posts,, hate and animosity continue to spread in the virtual world of social media. Hence, to build a good society, it is necessary to eradicate the hatred and superfluous knowledge spread on social media.