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Kolkata: The days after the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam have seen an alarming spike in anti-Muslim hate speech and threats across Bengal. Political presentations, social media spaces, and even everyday interactions have revealed brazen Islamophobia in a society thought to be largely syncretic. Yet, amidst the hate, a defiant current of resistance and calls for unity have also emerged, offering a measure of hope.  

Within minutes of the victims’ bodies arriving at Kolkata airport on April 23, Bharatiya Janata Party politician and Leader of Opposition in the Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari was videographed holding a deceased man’s child, while repeatedly exhorting upon his grieving wife to say that her husband was targeted “because he was a Hindu.”

Invoking Palestine, he proclaimed, “We are Modi’s sons. Just like Gaza was finished, we too will give a fitting reply.”

Mortal remains of Bitan Adhikari, who was killed in the Pahalgam terror attack, being brought to his residence, in Kolkata, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Photo: PTI.

His theatrics at the mourning event set the tone for the discourse that would follow.

The very next day, he posted an inflammatory message on social media claiming that two “suspicious” Kashmiris had been found operating in the South 24 Parganas district. West Bengal Police debunked the allegation, confirming that the individuals were engineers, one Hindu and one Muslim, who had simply installed a fiber broadband connection. The connection provider was incidentally Jio, a telecom company “dedicated to India” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Adhikari meanwhile quietly deleted his post without a word of apology over putting two men’s lives in danger.

The political climate turned increasingly toxic as state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar........

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