Tukde Tukde Gang is a

pejorative A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...

political

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

used in India by the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

(BJP) and accusing their critics for allegedly supporting

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...

and

secessionism Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics lea ...

. Whereas the words ''tukde-tukde'' refer to "breaking or cutting something into small fragments", 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 stigmatize political opponents who have different political views.

Usage

Sudhir Chaudhary, the ex-editor-in-chief of ''

Zee TV Zee TV (stylised as ZEE TV) is a Hindi general entertainment pay television channel in India. It was launched on 2 October 1992, as the first privately owned TV channel in the country. It is owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Zee TV also ...

'' (currently Consulting Editor of

Aaj Tak ''Aaj Tak'' () is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by TV Today Network, part of the New Delhi-based media conglomerate Living Media group (India Today Group) Aaj Tak HD On 14 December 2018, Aaj Tak launched India's first Hindi h ...

), 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". Shivam Vij credited

Republic TV Republic TV is a free-to-air Indian right-wing English-language news channel launched in May 2017. It was co-founded by Arnab Goswami and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, before the latter relinquished his stake in May 2019, leaving Goswami as the major ...

Arnab Goswami Arnab or Arnav is a first name popular in India, and means "ocean" in Sanskrit. It also means "rabbit" in Arabic. Notable people with the name include: * Arnab Basu, game designer, video-games producer; known for Tomb Raider series * Arnab Chakr ...

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. 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 Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

that protested the hanging of

Afzal Guru Mohammad Afzal Guru (June 1969 – 9 February 2013) was a Kashmiri separatist, who was convicted for his role in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack. He received a death sentence for his involvement, which was upheld by the Indian Supreme Co ...

, who was convicted for aiding terrorists. In a cellphone video that emerged after the protests, some protesters were heard shouting anti-national slogans such as "''Bharat tere tukde honge''" (India, you will be divided into pieces). Some students, including

Kanhaiya Kumar Kanhaiya Kumar is an Indian political activist who served as the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union and leader of the All India Students Federation (AISF). He served as National Executive Council member of Communist ...

and

Umar Khalid Umar Khalid (born Syed Umar Khalid) is an Indian student activist, former research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, former leader of Democratic Students' Union (DSU) in JNU. He was allegedly involved in the Jawaharlal Nehru University ...

, were arrested under charges of sedition and later released on bail for six months. Since then, numerous senior members of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) have used the phrase multiple times, including the Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

, Home Minister

Amit Shah Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...

, Law and Justice Minister

Ravi Shankar Prasad Ravi Shankar Prasad (born 30 August 1954) is an Indian politician and lawyer, from the Bharatiya Janata Party. A Member of Parliament since 2000, first in the Rajya Sabha (2000-2019) and then in the Lok Sabha (since 2019), Prasad has served as Un ...

and

MoS MOS or Mos may refer to: Technology * MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor * Mathematical Optimization Society * Model output statistics, a weather-forecasting technique * MOS (filmm ...

External Affairs

S. Jaishankar Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (born 9 January 1955) is an Indian diplomat and politician serving as the Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India since 30 May 2019. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a Member of Parliame ...

. In December 2019, Shah, while addressing a gathering in Delhi, described people protesting the recent Citizenship Amendment act as "tukde tukde gang" and said that they needed to be punished. In a February 2022 speech to parliament, Modi stated that

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

was the leader of Tukde Tukde Gang and had been practicing a divide and rule policy.

Criticism

An RTI request was filed in the

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

headed by Amit Shah, querying the particulars of the "tukde tukde gang" and whether it was banned under the

Unlawful Activities Prevention Act Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is an Indian law aimed at prevention of unlawful activities associations in India. Its main objective was to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty ...

(UAPA). In its reply on 20 January 2020, the Ministry said it had "no information concerning tukde-tukde gang."

Yashwant Sinha Yashwant Sinha (, born 6 November 1937) is an Indian administrator and politician. He served as the Minister of Finance from 1990 until 1991 under Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and again from March 1998 to July 2002 under Prime Minister Atal B ...

, former

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

and

External Affairs A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through mu ...

under PM

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

said, the real tukde-tukde gang are the one who are in the BJP indicating to

Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

and

Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

. Historian

Ramachandra Guha Ramachandra "Ram" Guha (born 29 April 1958) is an Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history, and the field of economics. ...

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.

P. Chidambaram Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...

, the former Minister of Finance under PM

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

, 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

, the sitting

Law Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...

of India, for calling protesters as a part of tukde tukde gang. Talking to the ''

National Herald (India) The ''National Herald'' is an Indian newspaper published by The Associated Journals Ltd and owned by Young India Limited a company by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. It was founded by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938 as a t ...

'',

, on whom the BJP Government registered a seditious case, said that the BJP government has been using, the imaginary “tukde tukde gang” to deflect public attention from the real issues of unemployment, economy and education.

References

Bibliography

Time to punish 'tukde-tukde' gang for violence in Delhi: Shah attacks Cong, AAP
The Asian Age, 26 December 2019.
Most dangerous tukde tukde gang in India consists of only two people, and they are both in BJP: Yashwant Sinha
Kerala Kaumudi, 27 December 2019.
“Will Punish The Tukde-Tukde Gang”, Says India’s Union Home Minister Amit Shah
metrosaga, 27 December 2019.
Didn’t encounter any tukde-tukde gang at JNU: S Jaishankar recalls student days
India TV, 6 January 2020.
Tukde-tukde on Shah’s lips
The Telegraph, 7 January 2020. * Nikhil Naz
Will The Real 'Tukde-Tukde Gang' Please Stand Up?
NDTV, 7 January 2020.
Boycott Deepika, her movies over support to tukde tukde gang: BJP MP
The Indian Express, 9 January 2020.
'Stood With People Who Say Bharat Tere Tukde Honge': Smriti Irani Slams Deepika Padukone
Outlook, 10 January 2020.
‘Won’t stand behind Tukde Tukde gang’: Kangana to Deepika
The Siasat Daily, 17 January 2020.

Deccan Herald, 21 January 2020.
Amit Shah’s ‘tukde tukde gang’ barb is a sign of his desperation: Kanhaiya Kumar
National Herald, 23 January 2020.
Tricolour is a cover for tukde-tukde gang: Prasad
BusinessLine, 27 January 2020.

The Week, 20 January 2020.
We don’t have information about ‘tukde-tukde gang’, home ministry says in reply to RTI query
Scroll.in, 20 January 2020.
Home Ministry Confirms It Has No Information On ‘Tukde Tukde’ Gang, Activist To Explore Legal Options
Outlook, 21 January 2020.
In Response to RTI, MHA Says It Has No Information About 'Tukde Tukde Gang'
The Wire, 21 January 2020. * Nivedita Menon
From 'Tukde Tukde Gang' To Saffronisation Of Faculty, Attacks On JNU Part Of 'Hindu Rashtra' Agenda
Outlook, 20 January 2020.
Tukde Tukde gang in Bollywood too: UP Minister
Telangana Today, 24 January 2020.

FirstPost, 27 January 2020. * ttps://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/shaheen-bagh-protest-is-a-platform-for-tukde-tukde-gang/article30669878.ece ‘Shaheen Bagh protest is a platform for tukde-tukde gang’ The Hindu, 28 January 2020. * Ronojoy Sen
The Standoff Between India’s Government and Its Protesters Can Only Be Broken by Elections
Foreign Policy, 28 January 2020.

Business Standard, 4 February 2020.

Zee News, * ttp://www.millenniumpost.in/delhi/bjp-ends-campaign-with-shaheen-bagh-rhetoric-399323 BJP ends campaign with Shaheen Bagh rhetoric Millennium Post, 6 February 2020. {{refend

External links

Yes, I am from the 'tukde tukde gang', says Kanhaiya Kumar
The Week, 9 January 2020. * Satish Padmanabhan
Satire , ‘Are You From The Tukde Tukde Gang Or The Khan Market Gang?’
Outlook, 10 January 2020. Political neologisms Propaganda in India Right-wing politics in India Godi media

Usage

Criticism

See also

References

Bibliography

External links