Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 1: With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections only a few months away, the former chief minister and the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has landed himself in a major controversy by equating Mohammad Ali Jinnah with Mahatam Gandhi and other top leaders in India’s freedom movement.
In an apparent bid to please the minority voters, considered to be a major chunk of supporters for the SP in UP, Yadav held Jinnah, the “Father of Pakistan,” among the icons of India’s freedom struggle and held him as much in high esteem as the as Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru and promptly came under attack from leaders of all hues, including the AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, who curtly advised him to “read some history.”
The UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath was among the first critics of Yadav after the former chief minister told an pre-election rally in Hardoi that “Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Jinnah studied at the same institute and became barristers. They became barristers and they fought for India’s freedom. They never backed away from any struggle.” The BJP accused Yadav of “Muslim appeasement” ahead of the polls, with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath calling it “Talibani mentality.”
Praising Patel on his 146th birth anniversary on Sunday, Yadav had said, “Sardar Patel understood the ground and he made decisions accordingly. Hence, he is also known as the Iron Man. While those in power today remember Saradar Patel ji, they should also remember his struggle.” Akhilesh had also referred to the ban imposed on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) by Patel, the then Union home minister, following Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, saying only he could do it.
The ruling party in UP the BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh targeted Akhilesh, asking why he “praised Pakistan” founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In a tweet where he tagged a video clip of Akhilesh’s speech, Dev wrote, “On the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, why is Akhilesh Yadav praising Jinnah?”
Asaduddin Owaisi, the MP from Hyderabad, also tore into the comment and fully backed Yadav’s other critics and strongly supported the Indian Muslims, who he said had nothing to do with Jinnah. Hinting that Yadav was wrong in trying to please a section of the Muslims by naming among the Indian freedom movement leader, Owaisi said, “If Akhilesh Yadav thinks that by giving such statements he can make a section of people happy, I think he is wrong and he should change his advisers. He should also educate himself and read some history,” he said. “Akhilesh Yadav should understand that Indian Muslims have nothing to do with Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Our elders rejected the two-nation theory and chose India as their country. Indian Muslims has chosen not to follow the path shown by Jinnah and Akhilesh Yadav will not endear himself to Muslims with such comments,” he added.
Yogi Adityanath alleged that Yadav made the remark “to appease a particular vote bank” and urged the Samajwadi Chief to issue an apology. “His divisive mindset came to the fore once again when he tried to glorify Jinnah by equating Sardar Patel with him. It’s the Talibani mentality that believes in dividing. The Samajwadi national president should apologize for this,” said Yogi Adityanath.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and another former chief minister Mayawati also targeted Akhilesh Yadav, who was briefly her ally for the 2019 national election. She alleged that Yadav’s remarks and the BJP’s response to them were a strategy planned by both parties to polarise voters ahead of the UP polls. “The politics of the SP and BJP have been complementary to each other. Since the thinking of these two parties is casteist and communal, they depend on each other for their existence. That is why when SP is in power, the BJP becomes strong; when the BSP is in power, the BJP becomes weak,” said Mayawati.
The Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, an ally of the BJP, however, declined to be drawn into the controversy and refrained from making any direct attack on the SP leader. In some hard hitting remarks that appeared to club his UP counterpart, Kumar said “Those who are creating controversies were not around when the country got freedom and they played no role in freedom movement.” Then dismissing the matter altogether, he said, “Is it pleasant to discuss such issues?”
Mohammad Ali Jinnah is the founding father of Pakistan and will receive respect there, the Bihar Chief Minister said. “Many people played their part in the war of Independence and the country got divided into two parts. This is significant in the other country (Pakistan)… Those who played their role in making the country will always have their place, respect in that country,” Kumar said when asked about the issue.
“Did Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) like this? No, Bapu did not like this. But the situation led to this (partition). And later, Pakistan got divided into two. No point discussing all this here. It not required. It is not a good thing that the country got divided. If our country was united, how much it would have prospered,” he added. Kumar had made a trip to Pakistan in 2012 during which he also visited Jinnah ‘s tomb in Karachi.
