JOIN USBJP poll rallies peppered with ‘Ghazni’, ‘Jinnah’
As the campaign builds up for the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, new terms, mainly concerning Muslims, have made entry into the speeches of BJP leaders.
Political analysts say this is the BJP's attempt to polarise the elections along religious lines and project itself as the 'messiah of Hindus'.
BJP leaders have also been raking up the issues of ‘conversion, cow slaughter, migration of Hindu families’ in their rallies and seeking to remind Hindus about their alleged ‘humiliation’ and attack on their culture during the regimes of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and others.
Senior BJP leader and UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who stoked a huge controversy by appearing to give a call to the party supporters to prepare for Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura, said ‘lungichhaap’ (a derogatory reference to Muslims) goondas carrying arms used to terrorise the people and grabbed their lands during the previous SP regime.
“People wearing lungis and skull caps grabbed your land and threatened you during the previous regime... You should remember all these things,’’ Maurya said at a public meeting in Prayagraj on Saturday.
Maurya also said he would henceforth address the SP president as ‘Akhilesh Ali Jinnah’.
Going a step further, UP BJP president Swatantra Deo Singh on Sunday likened the SP president Akhilesh Yadav’s regime to the rules of Mahmud of Ghazni, who had plundered India in the 10th century, and Muhammad Ghori, who laid the foundation of Muslim rule in India in the 12th century.
“Like Ghazni and Ghori, these people (Akhilesh) have also looted the state and attacked our religious identity... The Hindus had to plead with the officials to allow them to make a pandal for Durga Puja,” Singh said.
“The situation has changed since 2017 (BJP came to power after 2017 polls)... today flowers are showered on the kawad yatras... Ram Temple is under construction in Ayodhya... Kashi Vishwanath Corridor is ready,” he remarked.
Analysts say that the campaigning in UP may witness more references to Muslim invaders by BJP leaders as the elections draw closer, and that the saffron party will try to project itself as the only party which can ;'protect the interests' of the Hindus.
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