In one of the scenes, a character dressed as a female police constable beat Muslim men with lathis as they tried to block the bulldozer
GUWAHATI — Riding high after a sweeping victory in the Assam elections, a local political group aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the campaign staged a skit showing the demolition of a Muslim family’s home. The scene sparked loud, derisive laughter from the audience.
A video of the performance began circulating on social media on Tuesday.
The skit showed actors wheeling a cardboard bulldozer across the stage toward a makeshift shed meant to represent a Muslim family’s house.
The characters wore skullcaps and dhotis (unstitched cloth wrapped around the waist and legs), women and children were costumed to signal a Muslim household. “Authority” figures played officials carrying out an eviction.
In one of the scenes, a character dressed as a female police constable beat Muslim men with lathis as they tried to block the bulldozer. In another, an officer stood watching the demolition while others held back the family, including children.
The crowd laughed, especially during scenes of the family being beaten or shown in distress. The response underscored the fraught climate for minorities in the BJP-ruled state.
The skit comes after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won a record 102 of 126 seats in the Assam assembly. Delimitation played a major role in the outcome.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has publicly said the BJP benefited from the redrawing of constituency boundaries. The realignment split several Muslim-majority areas and merged them with constituencies dominated by indigenous communities, effectively diluting the Muslim vote-bank.
The performance, and the laughter it drew, has intensified debate about political rhetoric, minority representation, and the use of eviction imagery in public events in Assam.
