‘Muslims Should Be Set Ablaze Just as Hindus Burn Ravana Effigies on Dussehra’: BJP MLA

When asked where are the ‘Ravanas’ in Bihar, Bachaul said, “You go and see what is happening in Kashmir…Kishanganj, what’s happening in Purnia.”

The Seemanchal region in Bihar consists of four districts: Kishanganj, Araria, Purnia and Katihar. The region has a 47% Muslim population and accounts for 24 assembly seats.

In August 2021, the Patna high court had asked the state government on its plan for detention centres to house illegal immigrants. It had asked the government to develop a mechanism for people to report “illegal” migrants, especially Bangladeshis, and deport them.

On 1 September,  the district magistrate of Kishanganj, a district in northeastern Bihar’s Seemanchal region bordering Bangladesh, wrote to  the district’s public relations officer citing the court order.

The BJP MLA also attacked the Nitish government and accused it of Muslim appeasement, and called it a pseudo-secularist government. He further said, “Today Hindus have become a minority in many areas of the country, but no one is listening.”

In February 2022, the BJP MLA had also said that Muslims living in India should be stripped of voting rights and treated as second class citizens. Several members of the opposition parties, mainly the Rashtriya Janata Dal, in the Bihar assembly had protested against his anti-Muslim statement and demanded his suspension.

He is the same BJP MLA who had said that “those who are feeling scared in India should go to Afghanistan…petrol and diesel are cheaper, Once there, they will understand the value of India.”