The All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has released its promotional video clip for Maharashtra Assembly polls depicting “barbarities committed” against India’s largest minority, Muslims.
The video widely shared on social media platforms features an elderly Muslim man who is selling pens on the streets. A man on a motorbike wearing a saffron scarf approaches the Muslim seller. Although the seller is aged, the saffron-clad guy misbehaves with him and asks him to sell all the pens for just 10 rupees. While the seller continues to explain to him that he needs to make some profit in his business, he pushes the seller off the road, spilling pens all over the place.
The seller, who was hopeful of making some money, says in a woeful tone, “We are being wronged for decades now and nobody helps us.”
The video then features many other scenes referencing the true stories that depict how Muslims are treated in the country. It includes the discriminatory remarks made by BJP MP Tejaswi Surya on Muslims calling them “puncture walas” while another man expresses agony over questions about who he will vote for. It further highlights the very harsh reality of how vulnerable Muslims are showcasing a case where a Muslim was lynched over mere suspicion of consuming meat.
The video also highlights the hijab ban that happened last year. The scene shows a Muslim girl being harassed by a guy referencing hijabi student Muskan who was intimidated by a mob.
AIMIM party leader appears in the video, who stands in the parliament raising concerns of the Muslim community. He says, “I am speaking on behalf of those who are although visible but nobody listens to them, I am speaking on behalf of those about whom the Prime Minister said are ‘infiltrators’, on behalf of the Muslim women who were called ‘over breeders’, and those who are being lynched to death and about those youngsters who are rotting in jail due to the wrong laws brought by the government.”
The video then presents a confident hijabi girl who says, “One has spoken about us (Asaduddin Owaisi) now we will all speak together.”
The video culminates with a song which attempts to motivate its audience to stand together. The lines “Itihaas banayenge, sañvidhaan bachayenge, jo lad raha hai hamare liye, ham uska hi sath denge (We will make history, we will save constitution, the one who is fighting for us, we will stand with him) give a powerful message to the voters to come forward, stand united and fight for justice irrespective of gender and religion.
