Assam Minister’s Glorification of 1989 “Gobi Farming” is part of a Fascist Horror Campaign Instilling Psychological Terror !
P J James
In the context of BJP’s unprecedented Bihar election victory, Assam Minister and BJP leader Ashok Singhal’s notorious remark “Bihar approves gobi farming” together with the image of a cauliflower field, has already led to widespread debate and condemnation. In fact, the post was made on 14 May while counting was under way in the Bihar Assembly elections, with trends showing the ruling “double engine” leading and was set to win the election, following the effective application of ECI’s fascist tool SIR.
The “cauliflower image” often used by Hindutva fascists, is a reference to the “Logain horror” which was the most horrific and brutal part of the wider 1989 Bhagalpur violence against Muslims in Bihar. According to official figures, among the 1070 deaths, over 90% were Muslims. In the Logain massacre, the bodies of 116 Muslims, including women and children, were buried in a farmland where cauliflower saplings were planted later, to concel the bodies and hide the evidence. That’s why the “cauliflower massacre” has become the stark symbol of the Bhagalpur violence against Muslims.
Of course, the 1989 Bhagalpur massacre marked the beginning of RSS’ steady and systematic pace towards the ultimate aim of establishing a Hindu Rashtra. Linked to this, the Bhagalpur violence was triggered by the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign led by RSS- affiliated VHP procession intended to collect bricks (“Ramshila procession”) for the Ram temple in Ayodhya. True, Many riots and massacres took place all over India as part of the broader Ram Janmabhoomi movement, organized across India to collect consecrated bricks for the construction of Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. This nationwide Hindutva campaign significantly heightened communal tensions and polarization. For instance, the procession that passed through Muslim majority area Bhagalpur during October 1989 had reportedly shouted provocative slogans such as “India is for Hindus, Mullahs go away to Pakistan”. It was this anti-Muslim campaign that created a charged communal atmosphere that led to the condition for one of the biggest massacres of Muslims in India. Since then, “gobi farming” was a term used, not only by street goons, but even hard core Hindutva circles to insult the Muslim community.
For instance, take the case of the Nagpur violence in March 2025. As widely reported, terrorist Hindutva wings like Bajrang Dal and extremist groups like VHP initiated the campaign and violence demanding the demolition of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb’s tomb. As part of this, Hindutva social media handles have shared images of cauliflower, symbolically referring to Bhagalpur like bloodshed as a “solution” to issues involving Muslims. For instance, a Twitter handle at that time had posted a picture of a woman harvesting cauliflowers with the caption, “Nagpur has a solution.”
And, not only against Muslims, today the BJP, and the entire Sangh Parivar are widely using the “cauliflower” symbol to celebrate their every victory against adversaries. A typical instance was a 23 May 2025 AI-generated image posted from a Karnataka BJP Twitter account. It depicted Amit Shah holding a cauliflower over a gravestone reading “RIP Naxalism”.
To be precise, therefore, celebration of fascist victory by posting “cauliflower” as the symbol is not isolated or casual. It smacks of the horrors and brutality inherent in Indian fascism led by RSS, world’s largest and longest-running fascist organisation. In that sense, the post “Bihar approves Gobi farming” by Ashok Singhal, who is a BJP leader and minister, is an open endorsement of the fascist horrors on Muslim minorities and political adversaries.
