Days after the protests at Jantar Mantar culminated in the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the official Instagram accounts of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Delhi and Haryana posted a reel featuring only Muslims as protesters, p… Read on blog or Reader Alt News Read on blog or Reader Only Muslims in BJP’s CJP protest reel: Govt fears unity, wants to reduce movement to communal narrative, says Neha Bora By Ankita Mahalanobish on 1st August 2026 Days after the protests at Jantar Mantar culminated in the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the official Instagram accounts of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Delhi and Haryana posted a reel featuring only Muslims as protesters, portraying them as the face of “anarchy”. This is consistent with the BJP government's efforts in West Bengal to communalise the alleged violence that took place in Kolkata following a Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-solidarity rally on July 24. In the state assembly and in interactions with the media, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari described the troublemakers as 'foreign-funded jamatis', 'Islamists' and 'Friday people'. Without naming the community, he also claimed that Muslims were "retaliating in anger" because of the state government's actions against madrasas, the use of loudspeakers in mosques and animal slaughter. Talking to Alt News on BJP's attempt at communalising the movement, Neha Bora, the student face of the CJP protest, said people from all faiths participated in the dharna at Jantar Mantar and it reflected communal harmony. "That is precisely what the government fears because it thrives on divisive politics. They will stay in power only if Indians are divided. And this protest was a big blow to them, not only to the extent that a cabinet minister had to resign, but a big blow to the kind of politics that they peddle in this country. And that is why it has become so essential for them that they create this kind of a divide amongst the protesters. In the students’ movement, we are all united,” she added.  The BJP Delhi (@bjp4delhi) account posted the reel on July 27, which is a collation of several clips showing only Muslim protesters sloganeering and carrying posters and placards. The video garnered around 865,000 views to this day.    View this post on Instagram   A post shared by BJP Delhi (@bjp4delhi) The same video was uploaded on the same day by the official Instagram account of BJP Haryana (@bjp4haryana). However, this page later removed the video. Alt News recorded a screen capture of the video, which can be viewed below. https://vimeo.com/1213964572?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci The videos were overlaid with a Hindi text "Arajkata failate huye ye chehere yaad rahenge", roughly translating to “These faces spreading anarchy will be remembered". This selective display of only Muslim protesters partaking in the protest, which saw the attendance of tens of thousands of protesters from all communities and walks of life, purportedly imposes a communal lens on the students' movement. It also suggests that only Muslim protesters create chaos and disorder.   ALSO READ: CJP stir anti-national, anti-Hindu, says Hindutva outfit chief who thrashed two students at Jantar Mantar The CJP called off the students' protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on the 49th day after Pradhan resigned. The movement gained traction when climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, who was on a hunger strike, was removed from the protest site and taken to Safdarjung Hospital without his consent, prompting scores of students and supporters of the movement to join the 'Chalo Sansad' march on July 20, which saw significant police brutality.  ALSO READ: No one fired pellet guns in Delhi While social media platforms were flooded with videos showing participants from diverse backgrounds, these two BJP-affiliated Instagram accounts exclusively highlighted Muslim protesters, though the phrase used in the reel does not mention any religion, it blatantly attempts to create a selective visual narrative, steeped in communal stereotyping and Islamophobia.  'BJP Wants to Reduce the Movement to a Communal Narrative' Neha Bora, a research scholar at the School of Arts and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, was on a 23-day hunger strike at Jantar Mantar along with other All India Students Association (AISA) members. Referring to the purported video uploaded and circulated by the official BJP handles, Bora, the national president of AISA, said, “This is nothing new. BJP has been doing the same for a long time now. Creating videos explicitly showing Muslims as the ‘reason’ for the problems of the country.” She argued that their objective was to single out Muslim students and portray the movement as exclusively Muslim-led. "They have been explicitly targeting Muslims. In this case, they want to erase the participation of everyone else and reduce the protest to a communal narrative."  She added that “the protest embodied the communal harmony that forms the very fabric on which modern India was built.” According to her, people from different faiths and communities stood together throughout the movement, and there were repeated attempts to undermine that unity. "They tried tooth and nail to fracture this narrative and push the movement into the comfort zone of communal politics, and undermine its unity, but it did not happen."   Recalling the days of the protest, Bora said people from diverse communities had visited Jantar Mantar to offer prayers, blessings, and support. "That is precisely what the government fears because it thrives on divisive politics.” She added, “They will stay in power only when Indians are divided. And this protest was a big blow to them, not only to the extent that a cabinet minister had to resign, but a big blow to the kind of politics that they peddle in this country. And that is why it has become so essential for them that they create this kind of a divide amongst the protesters. In the students’ movement, we are all united.”

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