Akhilesh’s comment on Jinnah sparks row
People of the country and Uttar Pradesh will not tolerate Talibani mentality: Yogi
LUCKNOW: Amid intensified campaigning by all political parties for the 2022 UP assembly polls, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav’s naming Mahatama Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the same breath has snowballed into a controversy, with UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath leading the charge against the SP chief.
While Yogi and others in the BJP attacked Akhilesh over his Saturday comment, the Samajwadi Party justified it. Political observers feel Akhilesh’s comment wasn’t flippant. “It appears deliberate and calculated, aimed at 2022 polls”.
Adityanath at a public meeting in Moradabad on Monday called the comment smacking of “Talibani mentality, which the people of the country and Uttar Pradesh will not tolerate”.
Akhilesh, who is looking to win the 2022 elections to form an SP government in the state once again, at a public meeting in Hardoi had said: “Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah studied in the same institute. They became barristers and fought for India’s freedom.”
In an oblique reference to the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh), he had said: “...It was Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who imposed a ban on an ideology.”
On Monday, Yogi said in Moradabad: “I heard the statement of Samajwadi Party president. He compared ‘desh-todo’ (one responsible for dividing the country) Jinaah with ‘deshjodo’ (the one who united the country) Saradar Vallabhbhai Patel. The statement is downright shameful. Sardar Patel is the base and architect of the country’s unity.”
LUCKNOW: Amid intensified campaigning by all political parties for the 2022 UP assembly polls, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav’s naming Mahatama Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the same breath has snowballed into a controversy, with UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath leading the charge against the SP chief.
While Yogi and others in the BJP attacked Akhilesh over his Saturday comment, the Samajwadi Party justified it. Political observers feel Akhilesh’s comment wasn’t flippant. “It appears deliberate and calculated, aimed at 2022 polls”.
Adityanath at a public meeting in Moradabad on Monday called the comment smacking of “Talibani mentality, which the people of the country and Uttar Pradesh will not tolerate”.
Akhilesh, who is looking to win the 2022 elections to form an SP government in the state once again, at a public meeting in Hardoi had said: “Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah studied in the same institute. They became barristers and fought for India’s freedom.”
In an oblique reference to the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh), he had said: “...It was Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who imposed a ban on an ideology.”
On Monday, Yogi said in Moradabad: “I heard the statement of Samajwadi Party president. He compared ‘desh-todo’ (one responsible for dividing the country) Jinaah with ‘deshjodo’ (the one who united the country) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The statement is downright shameful. Sardar Patel is the base and architech of the
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav comments have snowballed into a controversy
country’s unity. At present, work is on to realise the dream of ‘Ek Bharath, shreshtha Bharat’ of Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi. But his (Akhilesh’s) ‘Vibhajankaari (divisive) mentality has surfaced once again when he compared Sardar Patel with Jinnah. He tried to glorify Jinnah. I feel that the people of India and Uttar Pradesh will absolutely not tolerate it.”
Sometime later, Yogi in Faridabad said, “Earlier Jinnah supporters fired upon Ram Bhakts; if they come again, they will again do it. Now (during BJP rule) bullets are fired upon terrorists, traitors”.
Playing up the issue of Ayodhya firing on kar sevaks during the SP rule on October 30, 1990, Adityanath had on Saturday asked, “if those responsible for ordering firing would apologise to the nation?”.
UP cabinet minister and government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh in a statement said: “Akhilesh Yadav compares nationalist leader and icon of India Sardar Patel with Jinnah for appeasement. It is an insult and Samajwadi Party will pay for it.”
BJP’s UP unit chief Swatantra Dev, Rajya Sabha MP Brij Lal and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya also criticised Akhilesh for his comment.
Taking objection to the comment, several Patels gathered in Hazratganj and planned to burn the effigy of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. Patels are OBCs in UP.
Congress too did not spare the SP. Zeeshan Haider, UP Congress spokesperson, said: “Both the BJP and the SP follow appeasement policy in their own ways. And what is happening since yesterday (over the Jinnah comment) is an example of it”
However, Samajwadi Party spokesperson and MLC Udaiveer Singh said: “Akhilesh did not say anything wrong. In the statement, he drew a parallel between Jinnah and the RSS as both were responsible for the country’s partition. Akhilesh only mentioned facts that Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, and Jinnah studied at the same institute and worked for country’ freedom. This is true. And he meant that while Patel was responsible for India’s unity, he had banned RSS as it were the RSS and Jinnah responsible for dividing the country.”
Political analyst and former head of the department of political science, Lucknow University, Prof SK Dwivedi said: “Akhilesh’s comment is not flippant. It looks calculated. He is trying to do a balancing act. One day he says he will build a better temple (than the upcoming temple at Ram Janmbhoomi in Ayodhya) and then the next day he invokes Jinnah. What he had said about Jinnah is not incorrect. Indeed, Jinnah and other leaders fought for India’s independence. But Akhilesh’s comment is aimed at appeasing minorities ahead of the 2022 polls. It remains to be seen how much he succeeds.”
Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) national president Jayant Chaudhary, in a tweet, said: “Jinnah, Indo-Pak Cricket, Aurangzeb doesn’t matter...The economy, job creation, governance must win!”. In the tweet,
He compared ‘desh-todo’ (one responsible for dividing the country) Jinaah with ‘desh-jodo’ (the one who united the country) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The statement is downright shameful. YOGI ADITYANATH,
CMňUP
Jayant attached the RLD manifesto’s page and added: “Let’s take up the issues and ignite a debate on development models, policies & programmes!” The RLD had been SP’s ally since 2017 UP assembly polls and the two parties are set to continue the alliance for the 2022 polls as well.
The Bahujan Samaj Party, however, was of the view that that there was a “collusion” between the SP and the BJP. In a tweet in Hindi, BSP chief Mayawati alleged that Yadav’s remarks on Jinnah and the BJP’s response to it were part of a well-thought-out strategy of the two parties to vitiate the atmosphere on Hindu-Muslim lines ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
In April-May 2018, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had staged a massive protest demanding that the portrait of Pakistan founder be removed from the student union office of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), where it has been hanging for decades.
BJP’s Aligarh MP Satish Gautam had written to the AMU administration seeking removal of the Jinnah portrait.
The AMU then had pointed out that the Jinnah portrait had been hanging there for decades as part of a tradition where photographs of all life members are placed on the walls of the student union. Jinnah was a founder of the AMU.
Clashes between the students and police were reported on the campus.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had then said that there was no question of celebrating Jinnah in India.