Why Jinnah portrait row now? asks Shashi Tharoor
LUCKNOW: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday questioned the BJP’s act of creating the Jinnah portrait controversy now when the picture has been at Aligarh Muslim University since 1938.“So many BJP governments have ruled in UP and at the Centre? Why this has become an issue today? If the portrait had to be removed, the best time for it was 1947,” he added
Speaking to media persons at the UP Congress Committee (UPCC) headquarters here, Tharoor, also the All India Professionals Congress chairman, said: “I am not a fan of Jinnah. Let the university council decide the issue. No one has a right to barge into the campus of a university…That is hooliganism, violence and against law of the country.”
He added that Jinnah’s portrait has been hanging at various places, including at the Bombay High Court -- the Bombay Bar Association.
“Will the BJP bash up some of the judges there?” asked Tharoor while urging the media not to get distracted by non-issues or petty issues.
“University is a place for discussions and experiment with ideas. The BJP and Sangh Parivar are, however, undermining the freedom of expression,” said Tharoor. Tharoor said CM Yogi Adityanath’s campaign in Karnataka has fallen flat. “His campaign failed to create enthusiasm. It was questioned by his own party men and he was asked to visit the dust storm affected areas in UP midway during campaigning,” he said.
Tharoor defended Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his “ready to become PM” comment and said his observations should be viewed in the right perspective.
“Rahul Gandhi did not rule out any possibility. What was said is obvious as leader of a largest single party,” he said.
About the Congress’s prospects, he said the party that did not do well in the last elections but was in a state of revival in Uttar Pradesh. “We will, however, have to evolve a clear cut strategy for 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
Tharoor said it was premature to comment on the SP-BSP alliance or the opposition unity at this stage.
“We have differences but we also have a common desire to resist the creeping mis-governance of BJP,” he said.
Tharoor said the country was not safe in the hands of the BJP government and added that the time had come to build a nation that was “productive, prosperous and safe”.