LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav came under heavy fire of the BJP top brass on Monday, a day after he invoked Muslim League leader and Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah claiming that he studied with Mahatama Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the same institution to become barrister and fought for India’s freedom.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath termed Akhilesh’s statement as his “shameful” display of “Talibani” and “divisive” mindset, that seeks to shred social fabric into pieces. He also demanded Akhilesh to tender an apology before the country.
Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya also lashed out at the SP chief calling him “Akhilesh Ali Jinnah” and his party as “Namazwadi Party”.
UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, too, chipped in saying that Yadav must have “burnt crackers” after watching the recent T-20 India-Pakistan cricket match.
Singh’s reference to the said cricket match came days after sedition charges were slapped on three Kashmiri students in Agra for celebrating Pakistan’s victory against India.
On Sunday, Yogi had maintained that his government would “not tolerate” people who stand in support of the “enemy country” and praise it.
BJP’s move to unleash caustic barbs at Akhilesh for his statement vis-a-vis Jinnah was seen as a precursor to a potential showdown between the two key political rivals in the run-up to UP assembly elections due in the next few months.
BJP sources said that the party was in no mood to relent and was charged up to corner SP for pursuing minority appeasement for the sake of vote bank politics.
As a matter of fact, Akhilesh had also left the BJP brass hot under the collar for saying that Patel had banned “an ideology”. “The same people who are speaking of national unity are trying to divide people on caste and religious lines,” Akhilesh had said on Sunday.
Experts said Akhilesh was referring to a communique issued by Patel to ban the RSS, the ideological mentor of the present day BJP, in 1948 after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Significantly, this is not the first time that Jinnah has attained the centrestage of political discourse in UP.
Days before the byelections for the Kairana and Noorpur in May 2018, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS and Hindu Yuva Vahini had clashed with police demanding removal of Jinnah’s portrait from the campus of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
This was after BJP MP from Aligarh Satish Gautam wrote to AMU vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor and sought a justification for Jinnah’s portrait, which has been hanging at the university since 1938.
Notably, the BJP had lost the byelections on the two seats to SP-BSP-RLD combine. This time, however, a fractured opposition allows the saffron outfit to position itself confidently, experts said.
Earlier in 2010s, two BJP stalwarts — LK Advani and Jaswant Singh — had triggered controversy by heaping praise on Jinnah.
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LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav came under heavy fire of the BJP top brass on Monday, a day after he invoked Muslim League leader and Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah claiming that he studied with Mahatama Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the same institution to become barrister and fought for India’s freedom. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath termed Akhilesh’s statement as his “shameful” display of “Talibani” and “divisive” mindset, that seeks to shred social fabric into pieces. He also demanded Akhilesh to tender an apology before the country. Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya also lashed out at the SP chief calling him “Akhilesh Ali Jinnah” and his party as “Namazwadi Party”. UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, too, chipped in saying that Yadav must have “burnt crackers” after watching the recent T-20 India-Pakistan cricket match. Singh’s reference to the said cricket match came days after sedition charges were slapped on three Kashmiri students in Agra for celebrating Pakistan’s victory against India. On Sunday, Yogi had maintained that his government would “not tolerate” people who stand in support of the “enemy country” and praise it. BJP’s move to unleash caustic barbs at Akhilesh for his statement vis-a-vis Jinnah was seen as a precursor to a potential showdown between the two key political rivals in the run-up to UP assembly elections due in the next few months. BJP sources said that the party was in no mood to relent and was charged up to corner SP for pursuing minority appeasement for the sake of vote bank politics. As a matter of fact, Akhilesh had also left the BJP brass hot under the collar for saying that Patel had banned “an ideology”. “The same people who are speaking of national unity are trying to divide people on caste and religious lines,” Akhilesh had said on Sunday. Experts said Akhilesh was referring to a communique issued by Patel to ban the RSS, the ideological mentor of the present day BJP, in 1948 after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Significantly, this is not the first time that Jinnah has attained the centrestage of political discourse in UP. Days before the byelections for the Kairana and Noorpur in May 2018, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS and Hindu Yuva Vahini had clashed with police demanding removal of Jinnah’s portrait from the campus of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). This was after BJP MP from Aligarh Satish Gautam wrote to AMU vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor and sought a justification for Jinnah’s portrait, which has been hanging at the university since 1938. Notably, the BJP had lost the byelections on the two seats to SP-BSP-RLD combine. This time, however, a fractured opposition allows the saffron outfit to position itself confidently, experts said. Earlier in 2010s, two BJP stalwarts — LK Advani and Jaswant Singh — had triggered controversy by heaping praise on Jinnah. FacebookTwitterLinkedinEMail