BJP leader and Assam’s cabinet minister for health and family welfare, Ashok Singhal’s social media post soon after the Bihar election results, has been called an open call for Muslim genocide, as it shared a photo of a cauliflower field captioned “Bihar approves Gobi farming,” alluding to the 1989 Bhagalpur anti-Muslim riots in which over 900 Muslims were killed and cauliflower saplings were planted over their bodies.
The post triggered widespread condemnation across political and social platforms, with the imagery being widely recognised to symbolise the mass killings in Bhagalpur.
Senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde described the post as a violation of constitutional responsibilities and an incitement to communal violence, while Congress MP Dr Md Jawaid highlighted that such messaging is intended to propagate Muslim hatred among core voters. Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale noted that the post references the 1989 Bhagalpur riots and expressed concern over the use of historically violent symbolism by a sitting BJP minister.
The reference to cauliflower in Hindutva pop culture has evolved into a coded call for violence against Muslims, with experts noting that the symbol has been revived by far-right groups and integrated into memes and content designed to shock minority communities. Such material often depicts Muslims and Dalits in grotesque, dehumanising ways, drawing inspiration from Western neo-Nazi iconography while incorporating local references like the Ranveer Sena, a banned militia implicated in Bihar massacres, according to The Wire.
In recent years, the BJP has increasingly adopted and broadcast such imagery, which was previously confined to extremist influencers and online trolls.
The minister’s post follows a pattern seen in other official channels, such as the BJP Karnataka wing’s social media content depicting Union Home Minister Amit Shah holding a cauliflower over a gravestone marked “RIP Naxalism,” and Assam BJP’s AI-generated advertisement showing Muslims living ordinary lives, presented as a threat to societal order if the BJP were not in power.
Experts point out that these messages are carefully crafted to bypass hate speech regulations while inflaming communal sentiments.
The post has raised questions regarding legal violations under the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, which prohibits appeals to voters on religious grounds and the promotion of enmity or hatred between communities during elections. Sections 123(3A) and 125 of the Act outline that promoting religious or communal hatred in connection with elections is considered a corrupt practice and punishable by imprisonment, fine, or both.