Taking a dig at SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s Jinnah remarks, BJP national president J P Nadda on Sunday said there is a threat to the nation from those parties which prefer Muhammad Ali Jinnah over Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
He was addressing a meeting of booth in-charges in Etah ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls slated for early next year.
“We talk about ‘ganna’ (sugarcane), and ‘Jinnah’ comes out from their mouth. I see a threat from those people and parties, which for the sake of votes and power, take out the genie (‘jinn’) of Jinnah to take on Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. I am confident that the people of Uttar Pradesh will work to put back the genie in the bottle and close it,†Nadda said.
Intensifying his attack on opposition parties, the BJP leader said, “Some live in the name of Jinnah, while some resurrect the party in the name of family. But, the BJP is a party which believes in ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishvaas’.
“All the political parties are associated with votebank (politics), advocate casteism and are completely soaked in dynastic rule. The BJP is the only party which is based on ideology, and is democratic from top to bottom,†he said.
The Samajwadi Party chief had at an event in Hardoi held on October 31 lavished praise on Sardar Patel on the latter’s 146th birth anniversary, but raised eyebrows when he appeared to equate Patel with Pakistan’s founder Jinnah.
“Sardar Patel understood the ground and he made decisions accordingly. Hence, he is also known as the Iron Man.
“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.
He had also referred to the ban imposed on the RSS by Patel, the then home minister, following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, saying only he could do it.
Nadda, while targeting the previous state governments, said earlier cane charging was done and bullets were fired for urea in Uttar Pradesh.
“(Prime Minister Narendra Modi got neem coating of urea done, and stopped its blackmarketing. As a result, urea is now easily available to farmers,†he said.
He also said that many claimed themselves to be farmers and leaders of farmers, but none of them were able to do any good for the community.
“It is only Modi and his government which has done good for the farmers,†he claimed.
Referring to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, Nadda said, “Nobody can forget the Muzaffarnagar riots or exodus from Kairana. The Samajwadi Party (SP) has removed many photos from its posters, but remember this is the same SP and not the new SP. For the development of the state, such people should be made to sit in homes, and in every booth, lotus (BJP election symbol) should bloom.†He also highlighted the achievements of the BJP-led state government on the occasion.
“Was the construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya possible under the governments of the Congress, SP or the BSP? Could tripple talaq have ended? Could Article 370 be abrogated? Never.
Today, the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya has begun, when Narendra Modi is the prime minister and Yogi Adityanath is the chief minister,†the BJP president added.
