BJP's election campaign CD `Bharat ki Pukar' — excerpts from the transcript

(The Hindu

What the BJP's election campaign CD `Bharat ki Pukar' presents — excerpts from the transcript

Special Correspondent

New Delhi: Here are some detailed excerpts from the verbatim transcript, translated from the Hindi original, of the VCD titled `Bharat ki Pukar' released by the Bharatiya Janata Party as part of its campaign material for the Uttar Pradesh elections. It is on the basis of the contents of this VCD — which the BJP says it has `withdrawn' — that the Election Commission has directed the registration of an FIR against a veteran State party leader who launched the VCD, the party's national president, and some others.

The VCD consists of a series of fictionalised scenes revolving around several dramatis personae including Masterji, a BJP campaigner, and an unnamed social worker. Judging from the final credits, a large number of actors were used to make the VCD.

[Editor-in-Chief's note: The Hindu considers the dialogue and message contained in this CD to be highly communal and offensive. It is publishing excerpts from the transcript because it believes the Indian public has a right to be informed about the reasons behind the ongoing controversy. Several TV channels have already shown visuals from the offensive CD.]

Opening credits: BJP Uttar Pradesh presents `Bharat ki Pukar' (`The Call of India')

Voiceover: Today Mother India is screaming aloud, "Oh my sons, save me from being broken into pieces again. I no longer have the strength to be enslaved another time. By using terrorists, spreading fear and dividing us, Pakistan wants to break India into pieces. Hyenas hungry for political power are egging them on. They have forgotten what the consequences of this will be. Now, ordinary people of India have to think, do they want slavery again or Ram Rajya in their independent India."

(Cut to image of Ram)

[Song — Ai Bharat ma tere charano mein... ]

[Flag of the BJP, clips of BJP leaders]

Section title: A contemporary picture of India and Uttar Pradesh

The scene: Newspaper delivery boy cycles past shouting headlines about terrorist attacks.

1. Bharat desh aatankvad ke giraft mein.

Masterji goes around telling people to come to January 26 flag hoisting. At the meeting, only four or five people come. Masterji laments the poor showing but gives a stirring speech and shouts `Vande Mataram.'

The camera immediately cuts to the image of a Muslim man (identified by cap on head) planting a bomb under a white Ambassador car.

Episode: Cow slaughter

Cut to scene in idyllic village home with soothing music. Two men rest in courtyard next to tethered cow.

Cut to two young men walking outside, wearing pants and shirts and carrying long lathis.

Youth 1: Bhai Javed, the Hindu village has come.

Youth 2: Salim, you are right. Hurry up and take out the stuff, the tika and red thread (kalava).

[Javed opens bag and puts tika on Salim's forehead.]

Salim: Bhai, put it properly.

[They then tie the kalava on each other's wrist while Javed looks around furtively.]

Javed: Now no one will recognise us [laughs].

The two walk into the courtyard of the home with the cow.

Javed: Uncle, Ram, Ram!

Uncle: What's up? Where have you come from?

Javed: We want a cow. The doctor has said we should give milk to our child. So seeing your cow, we have come. Will you sell me your cow?

Uncle: We have cow's milk. And we can sell it too.

Javed: What you say is true. But sell us this cow. Our child can drink milk and we will look after the cow.

Uncle: The sons of butchers have come around many times ...

[Cut to look of panic on Javed's face, cut to kalava on wrist]

... and even offered me 3,500 rupees. I told them I wouldn't sell it for even a lakh. But if you keep it at home and look after it, you can have it.

Javed: But uncle, 3500 is too much.

Uncle: Brother, give me what you want. You are one of us.

Javed: Uncle, I can only give 3000. I'm a poor man.

Uncle: Take it, but on one condition. Don't sell it to the butchers.

Javed: Uncle, we are not Muslims.

[He pays the money and takes the cow.]

[Cut to scene of Uncle sleeping. His nephew comes in.]

Nephew: Uncle, you've sold the cow to butchers and now you are sleeping!

Uncle: No, they were the Hindu boys. They had a tika on their forehead and kalava on their wrists. I saw it with my own eyes. It's only after seeing that that I sold it.

Nephew: I saw the butcher's sons on my way here. Neither did they have a tilak nor kalava. Aren't you ashamed? You sold your cow to the butchers.

Uncle: Are you telling me the truth?

Nephew: I know those boys.

Uncle: Oh, no this is a terrible thing that has happened. [Starts calling out for help, if anyone can find them] ... We'll find them and beat them up and bring my cow back.

Nephew: Ha! You are not going to find your cow. They've probably already killed her.

[Cut to 50-second-long footage of a buffalo being slaughtered, including scenes of the blood pouring out from its throat.]

Text: The present government is giving full support to butchers. Cruel atrocities are being committed on Gaumata.

Uncle [head in hands]: This is a terrible crime, what am I going to do?

Nephew: You can cry about this your whole life. You've committed a big sin by selling your cow to the butchers.

Scene 2: `Duty of Muslim women to increase population'

Masterji stops a woman on the road.

Masterji: My child.

Woman: Yes.

Masterji: Elections are coming. Think carefully before you vote. And put your stamp only on the lotus symbol. Because if peace can come to this country, then it can come only under the BJP's rule. Congress and Samajwadi are the government of mullahs and maulvis.

Woman: Forgive me for saying so, but I am also a Muslim and Mullahs and Maulvis consider women their personal property.

[Cut to group women in black chador]

Woman 1: The duty of a woman is to produce children and increase the population.

Woman 2: What this sister says is right. Our leaders have issued an order. That those who produce more than 10 children will get economic assistance.

[Cut back to woman and Masterji]

Woman: This religion considers us as objects to be used.

Masterji: Well said, my child. If all the women become educated and wise like you, then this country's fate will improve.

[Cut to real news clip of speech by saffron-clad woman. "Hindus will produce two children and Muslims will marry five times and produce 35 pups and make this country into an Islamic state."]

Scene 3: "You will all have to grow beards"

Masterji [to group of shopkeepers]: Don't let this opportunity pass by. This time if you don't vote for the BJP, disaster will strike this country. The country will be destroyed. The BJP is a party that thinks about the country. It thinks about the Hindu religion. There is no other party like it. The other parties, they are all agents of the Muslims. What else have they done other than this? Prices have gone up. I tell you, we must vote only for the BJP.

Shopkeeper: Masterji, it's time for me to run my shop. Here Hindus and Muslims both come. What is it to me whose government is formed? You have unfurled the BJP's flag first thing in the morning. If you'd like a cup of tea, you are welcome. Otherwise, please excuse me.

Masterji: Tea? You think I am desperate for your tea? It's because I'm concerned about this country and our religion that I'm asking you to vote for the BJP. If you don't vote BJP, you will regret it. This country will be enslaved. First it was enslaved by the British, now it will be enslaved by the Muslims. Even earlier it was enslaved by the Muslims. That Aurangzeb earlier cut your choti [tuft of hair] and took off your sacred thread. And now these tikas on your forehead will have to go and in their place you will have to grow beards. That day you will repent, Panditji. And you will be destroyed and so will this country.

Shopkeeper: He is really irritating!

Friend: Panditji, you are calling the Masterji mad but everything he said is right. If today we don't take care, these tilaks will go and we will all be sporting beards and caps.

Scene 4: `You will end up in burqas'

Masterji [to group of women complaining about the price rise]: Listen, elections are coming and only by your votes can this country and the Hindu religion be saved. Otherwise we are standing in the jaws of slavery again. This time we have to make the BJP victorious and vote on the Lotus symbol.

Woman 1: Well you men know best, we will vote where you say.

Woman 2: People keep coming to ask for our votes.

Woman 3: No one is bothered about prices.

Masterji: That is why I am saying: if the BJP is in power, everything will be all right.

Woman 1: Masterji, why are you chewing your brains? People will vote for whoever they want.

Masterji: It is your brain that has been ruined! You will end up covered in burqas and eating paan!

Scene 5: Muslims abduct Hindu girl

[A social worker comes to a village looking for Chameli chachi. Chachi is lying huddled in bed.]

Social worker: Chachi, what happened?...

Chameli: A Muslim boy pretended to be a Hindu and lured my young daughter away. Fearing badnami, my husband committed suicide. If I say I am going to the police, then those people threaten me [cut to visual of a Muslim man wearing a turban and looking threateningly] that if you report us, we will kill your child. Now you tell me what should I do?

Social Worker: Don't worry, now that I am here, we will take care of you, we will solve everything.

Chameli: Please bring my daughter back. Who knows what kinds of terrible things are happening to her.

[Cut to scene of Chameli's daughter praying in front of a portrait of Krishna.]

Daughter: Om Jai Jagadish Hare!...

[A man walks up and throws the Krishna portrait on the floor.]

Man: If you perform puja in this house again, I will really fix you. Remember that.

Girl: What is this you have done, Ram? You have thrown Bhagwanji's picture! What is this you have done, Ram?

Man: Ram? Ha ha ha! My name is not Ram, it is Shehzad Ali. And I am not a Hindu but a true Muslim! Ha Ha ha ha!

Girl: What is this you are saying? You are lying.

Man: Listen carefully to what I say because from today, I am no longer Ram and you are no longer Geeta. From today your name is Fatima Begum. And tomorrow, you will be married to this boy, Yaamin, according to our rituals. [Cut to picture of an older man laughing in an evil manner.] And then you will have to live with him.

Girl: [Crying] You are lying. This can't be.

Man [slaps girl]: And don't ever utter a name that is against our Islam. What is there in these pictures? [Camera pans to portrait of Krishna on floor.]

Where is God? This is all lies. If you want to pray, pray to that Khuda who has made the whole universe.

Girl: [Breaks down, falls at his feet, and says with folded hands] Let me go back to my home.

Man: Home? Ha ha ha! Which home? This is your home and you will have to live here. And stop this puja-wuja and start namaz. Because by tomorrow, you will have become a true Muslim. Yaamin! Come here. Take this girl away. Tomorrow you will be married to her.

Yaamin: [Grabs girl's hand] Come on, begum. I will make you happy.

[Yaamin drags girl away, minus her dupatta.]

Man: Ha ha ha! When Hindu girls get ensnared by us, they scream and shout but sadly there is no one to listen to them and we have great fun. Ha ha ha ha ha!

Written text on screen: Love in Jihad, injury to Hindu religion, and forced conversion. This is the protection provided by the SP government.

[Social worker goes on a political mission, meets Samajwadi and Congress leaders, and finally decides that the BJP is the party to support.]

Scene 6: `Soon there will be only Naqvis, no Sohanlals'

The newspaper man brings headlines of terrorist attacks. Masterji shouts that this is what he has been warning about for years but people thought he was mad. In anger, he pushes the newspaper man's bicycle, but then has a heart attack and dies.

Funeral scene: Social worker, shopkeepers, and all the dramatis personae we have met so far congregate around his body.

Shopkeeper: He was a great man, always worried about the country and our religion. One day he came to my shop and said Ramlalji, the country will be partitioned once again because Hindus are forgetting their culture and the government is taking the side of the Muslims ...

Shopkeeper 2: Yes, he was a true patriot. He used to consider the Samajwadi government as pro-Muslim and that is what is happening in reality.

Mourner: Do you know the Mulayam government has hired 13,000 Urdu teachers. So are ulema going to teach us from now? And they have removed all laudatory references to Hindus from the curriculum. What will happen to Hindu culture?

Social Worker: Who knows how many more masters will be martyred because of their concern for this country? But your eyes will still not open. And now, that day is not far away when we will be afraid to even call ourselves Hindu, and you will never be able to find a Sohanlal, Mohanlal, Atmaram, or Radhakrishan anywhere. Wherever we look, we will only see Abbas, Naqvi, Rizvi, and Maulvi. All schools and colleges will be shut down. What will open are madrasas from where fatwas will be issued to drive Hindus out from this country, enslave them — because they want to rule over here, they want to make India into Pakistan. Then it will be difficult for Hindu girls to ever venture outside their houses. Muslims will seize their houses. Then who will protect their honour?

Old man: No. We will never allow this to happen. In order to realise Masterji's dreams and prevent India from becoming Pakistan, we must live and die for the nation.

Social worker: Come, let us take a vow.

[All join hands over Masterji's body and shout `Vande Mataram! Jai Sri Ram! Vande Mataram! Jai Sri Ram!']

Social worker: Just as the slogan of Vande Mataram inspired us to throw out the British, today we have to take an oath to drive those traitors out of the country.

Visual of BJP flag

Social worker: Let us move ahead waving the flag of the BJP and the saffron flag. Jai Sri Ram!

[The CD concludes with songs, visual montages of BJP leaders giving speeches, clips of the Babri Masjid being demolished, etc.]