BJP seeks renaming of Andhra’s Jinnah Tower
BJP leaders demanded that the state government remove the name “Jinnah” from the monument and the location, as it symbolises the name of a person responsible for the partition of India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday demanded the Andhra Pradesh government to change the name of a popular landmark in Guntur town named after Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan.
The Jinnah Tower, located in the heart of Guntur on Mahatma Gandhi road, is a tall monument built around 1945. The tower consists of six pillars with a dome-shaped structure atop and is considered a symbol of harmony and peace by the locals. The location is also referred to as Jinnah Centre.
BJP leaders demanded that the state government remove the name “Jinnah” from the monument and the location, as it symbolises the name of a person responsible for the partition of India.
It all started with a tweet by BJP national secretary Y Satya Kumar on Thursday morning, which said, “This tower is named after Jinnah & area as Jinnah Centre. The irony, it’s not in Pakistan but the Guntur City of AP. A centre that still carries the name of a traitor of India. Why shouldn’t it be named after Dr Kalam or son of the soil, a great Dalit poet, Gurram Jashuva? Just an idea!”
Within no time, BJP Andhra Pradesh unit president Somu Veerraju issued a statement saying the party was strongly opposing Jinnah’s name for the monument in Guntur. “Jinnah was responsible for the formation of Pakistan by dividing India. He had sown the seeds of enmity among the people of the country,” he said.
The BJP state president demanded that the state government rename the tower after any other patriot who had strived for the independence of India. “Not just in Guntur, the government should change the names of all the places in the country that are named after those responsible for the partition of India,” Veerraju said.
BJP state vice-president S Vishnuvardhan Reddy also put forward a similar demand, while Telangana BJP lawmaker T Raja Singh went a step ahead and threatened to pull down Jinnah Tower, which he said, was the symbol of India’s partition. He demanded that the location be named after Abdul Kalam.
Reacting to the demands, the ruling YSR Congress party alleged that the BJP leaders were raising the issue of a historic monument named after Jinnah, only with a motive of disturbing the communal harmony in the state and creating troubles for the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government.
YSRCP general secretary and legislator Lella Appi Reddy, who hails from Guntur town, said the Jinnah Tower was built before India got the independence and wondered why the BJP leaders were suddenly concerned about its name.
He pointed out that veteran BJP leader L K Advani, during his visit to Pakistan in 2005, had praised Jinnah as the most secular freedom fighter and an ambassador for Hindus and Muslims. “Advani had even refused to take back his comments about Jinnah when some media persons questioned him,” Reddy recalled.
“Unfortunately, the BJP leaders are kicking up controversies for their political gains,” he alleged.
In 2017, the Pakistan government acknowledged the Jinnah Tower in an official tweet. “#Jinnah Tower is a landmark monument in the city of #Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. It is named after the father of #Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and is located on Mahatma Gandhi Road of the city as a symbol of peace and harmony. #QuaidEAzam #JinnahKaPakistan” it tweeted.