New Delhi: A cabinet minister in Assam has triggered political outrage after invoking “gobi farming”, a chilling reference to the 1989 Bhagalpur riots, in a celebratory post following the NDA’s victory in Bihar elections.
The phrase, widely recognised as a dog whistle aimed at Muslims, alludes to the Logain massacre during the riots, where over a hundred Muslim men were buried under a cauliflower field.
“Bihar approves Gobi farming,” BJP’s Ashok Singhal, Minister of Health and Family Welfare wrote on X with a photo of a cauliflower field alluding to 1989 riots in Bihar’s Bhagalpur that left over 1,000 people dead.
Bihar approves Gobi farming ✅ pic.twitter.com/SubrTQ0Mu5
— Ashok Singhal (@TheAshokSinghal) November 14, 2025
The riots that lasted over a month spread to 200 villages. According to a 1996 report by People’s Union of Civil Liberties, 115 bodies of Muslim men from Logain village were buried in the fields and cauliflower was planted over the bodies
Gaurav Gogoi, Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha slammed the post.
“The use of “gobi farming” imagery by a sitting Cabinet Minister of Assam in the wake of the Bihar election results marks a shocking new low in political discourse. It is both vulgar and shameful,” Gogoi wrote.
The use of “gobi farming” imagery by a sitting Cabinet Minister of Assam in the wake of the Bihar election results marks a shocking new low in political discourse. It is both vulgar and shameful.
The image is widely associated with the Logain massacre of 1989, where 116 Muslims…
— Gaurav Gogoi (@GauravGogoiAsm) November 15, 2025
The coded reference to the Bhagalpur riots was not a singular incident this year. In March, similar imagery referencing “Gobi farming” was reportedly circulated during the Nagpur violence. Furthermore, the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party also employed the controversial cauliflower reference as a meme in May to celebrate the killing of Maoists during an operation in Chhattisgarh.
The use of the imagery by Singhal has invited political backlash from all quarters, including by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and TMC MP Saket Gokhale.
“Gobi farming” refers to glorifying the mass killing of Muslims in Bhagalpur, Bihar, in 1989. A cauliflower farm was planted on the graves to hide evidence.
This is Modi’s BJP Minister from Assam. Not some fringe element.
Clearly, @PMOIndia approves this. The world should know. https://t.co/y4faGndOrQ
— Saket Gokhale MP (@SaketGokhale) November 15, 2025
Also read: Why Jungle Raj Bihar kept out communal riots for 3 decades but Delhi and Gujarat couldn’t
The Bhagalpur riots
Bhagalpur in Bihar had always been vulnerable, with repeated incidents of communal violence reported.
Tension had been simmering in the area, after two festivals: Bisheri Puja and Muharram had fallen on the same day in the state in August 1989. Between 12 August and 22 August 1989, communal tensions rose sharply, the PUCL report noted. The majority of those killed in the riots were Muslims, and police had recorded 595 cases of rioting, arson, looting and killings.
Riots officially started on 24 October, and Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s five-day ‘Ramshila’ programme was considered the trigger. Under the programme, the VHP had been collecting ‘bricks’ to be used for the development of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Then, two rumours spread: The first one alleging that Hindu students living near lodges in the university area had been killed by Muslims. The second that 31 Muslim students had been killed, and that their bodies had been dumped near the Sanskrit college.
Both incidents were dismissed as rumours in inquiries that took place after the riots.
The riots spread through 200 villages in rural Bhagalpur and claimed the lives of at least 1,000 people.
The Superintendent of Police, KS Dwivedi was accused of siding with the Hindus and not effectively disturbing the spread of riots. At first, Dwivedi was suspended by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, according to scholar Warisha Farasat’s article in Economic and Political Weekly, but he was reinstated after protests, and the Prime Minister was forced to rescind orders.
“We would hold Dwivedi, the then superintendent of police, Bhagalpur, wholly responsible for whatever happened before 24 October 1989, on 24th itself and [after the] 24th. His communal bias was fully demonstrated not only by his manner of arresting the Muslims and by not extending them adequate help to protect them,” an inquiry commission report on the riots said in 1995.
Fourteen people were handed out life sentences in 2007 for killing 116 people in the Logain massacre case.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)