Tukde Tukde Gang is a
pejorative political
catchphrase used in India by the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and accusing their critics for allegedly supporting
sedition and
secessionism.[1] Whereas the words tukde-tukde refer to "breaking or cutting something into small fragments",[2] the phrase "tukde tukde gang" can be translated as "a gang that wants to divide the country". The phrase is used by BJP leadership, and some news channels to stigmatise political opponents who have different political views.[3][4][5]
Usage
Sudhir Chaudhary, the ex-editor-in-chief of Zee TV (currently Consulting Editor of
Aaj Tak), took credit for coining the term. According to him, it was targeted at "designer journalists", and "English-speaking page 3 celebrities" who allegedly "sympathise with terrorists" and "malign the judicial system".[6] Shivam Vij credited
Republic TV's
Arnab Goswami for having popularised the term as a device to club together all the Left-liberal critics of the government and painting them as anti-nationals who allegedly wanted to see India broken to pieces.[7]
The term was popularised during the
2016 JNU sedition row. Then it was used to brand the left-leaning students of the
Jawaharlal Nehru University that protested the hanging of
Afzal Guru, who was convicted for aiding terrorists. In a cellphone video that emerged after the protests, some protesters were heard shouting slogans such as "Bharat tumhare tukde honge" (India, you'll be divided into pieces) which was later said to be "Bhartiya Court Zindabad" (long live the Indian Courts) raised by
counter protestingABVP members.[8][9][10][11] Some students, including
Kanhaiya Kumar and
Umar Khalid, were arrested under charges of sedition and later released on bail for six months.[12][13][14][15]
An
RTI request was filed in the
Ministry of Home Affairs headed by Amit Shah, querying the particulars of the "tukde tukde gang" and whether it was banned under the
Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). In its reply on 20 January 2020, the Ministry said it had "no information concerning tukde-tukde gang."[22][16]Yashwant Sinha, former
Minister of Finance and
External Affairs under PM
Atal Bihari Vajpayee said, the real tukde-tukde gang is the one who are in the BJP indicating to
Modi and
Shah.[23] Historian
Ramachandra Guha said the real tukde-tukde gang are those, who are sitting in Delhi who want to divide the country on the basis of religion and languages while he was detained by police during CAA-NRC protest.[24]P. Chidambaram, the former Minister of Finance under PM
Manmohan Singh, said that the "real tukde tukde gang" is the ruling party which is determined to divide the country on religious lines. He criticised the comment of
Ravi Shankar Prasad, the former
Law Minister of India, for calling protesters as a part of tukde tukde gang.[25] Talking to the National Herald (India),
Kanhaiya Kumar, on whom the BJP government registered a seditious case, said that it's been using, the imaginary “tukde tukde gang” to deflect public attention from the real issues of unemployment, economy and education.[26]