Agra: Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday attacked Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav for “glorifying” Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the run-up to assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, while invoking Lord Hanuman to praise chief minister Yogi Adityanath, saying no “bahubalis” (musclemen) are visible under the current regime, but just “Bajrang Bali”.
Addressing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jan Vishwas Yatra in Aligarh, Shah said the late BJP leader Kalyan Singh, who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the Babri Mosque was demolished in 1992, had sacrificed his chair for Ram Janmabhoomi. “As elections approach, Akhilesh does not remember Kalyan Singh, but ‘Jinnah’. Will you vote for those who eulogise Jinnah?” Shah asked the audience.
At an event in Hardoi on October 31, the SP chief had raised eyebrows after he appeared to equate Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. “Sardar Patel, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah studied in the same institute and became barristers. They helped (India) get freedom and never backed away from any struggle,” Yadav had said.
Dwelling on the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Shah said senior BJP leader “Advani-ji took out a Rath Yatra, and the Samajwadi Party fired bullets (at kar sewaks) and also used sticks on them. But it was our Prime Minister (Narendra) Modiji who performed the bhoomipujan for the Ram temple.” “No matter how hard you try, a grand temple of Lord Ram touching the sky will be built in a few months,” Shah said, attacking the SP chief.
{{/usCountry}}Dwelling on the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Shah said senior BJP leader “Advani-ji took out a Rath Yatra, and the Samajwadi Party fired bullets (at kar sewaks) and also used sticks on them. But it was our Prime Minister (Narendra) Modiji who performed the bhoomipujan for the Ram temple.” “No matter how hard you try, a grand temple of Lord Ram touching the sky will be built in a few months,” Shah said, attacking the SP chief.
{{/usCountry}}Shah also claimed that general public especially “our daughters and sisters” were harassed by ‘bahubali’ during the SP government in the state.
“The land was grabbed. But today in the regime of Yogi Adityanath, ‘baahubalis’ are not visible, but only ‘Bajrang Bali’ could be seen,” he said.
Shah claimed the Samajwadi Party had created ‘NIZAM’ (rule) in Uttar Pradesh. “Nizam means governance but for Akhilesh Yadav, it means – N for ‘Nasimuddin’, I for ‘Imran Masood’, Z and A for ‘Azam Khan’, and M for ‘Mukhtar Ansari’. I want to ask you whether you want Akhilesh’s Nizam or Yogi-Modi’s development Nizam,” he said.
Comparing Samajwadi Party with BJP, Shah said that SP stood for triple Ps — Pariwarvad (dynasty rule), Pakshpat (favouritism) and Palayan (exodus) — while the BJP represented triple Vs: Vikas (development), Vyapar (trade) and Virasat (heritage).
He also claimed that “Bua, Babua (apparent reference to BSP chief Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav) or Congress leaders cannot prevent the BJP from coming to power in Uttar Pradesh again.
“Can they provide free ration, toilets, medicines and electricity to the poor in the state?…” Shah said, while asserting that the BJP will secure more than 300 seats in the upcoming elections to 403-member Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly scheduled for early next year.
The SP chief on Thursday called Shah’s remarks “childish and immature”. “...These words neither fill the stomach of people nor help in running the households... In 2022, the public will take them to the end (of the Hindi alphabet) (22 mein jantaa inkaa ‘ksh’, ‘tr’, ‘gy’ kar degi),” Yadav tweeted hours after Shah’s ‘Nizam’ salvo against the SP chief . ‘Ksh’, ‘tr’, ‘gy’ are the three last letters in Hindi.
Samajwadi Party state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said people of Uttar Pradesh have lost faith in the BJP.
“After losing ‘Jan vishwas (people’s trust)’ by lying and betraying them, they are now doing this Jan Vishwas yatras. But people have lost faith in BJP. The BJP has realised this and their top leaders are now scared looking at the imminent defeat. So they are getting intense on their brand of divisive and hate politics. But now none of these old tricks will work,” said Chaudhary.