A few days ago, at an Aaj Tak event, when asked about Akhilesh Yadav’s claim that he is a “bigger Hindu” than Yogi Adityanath, the CM of Uttar Pradesh replied, “We had said Ram Lala ham ayenge, mandir wahin banayenge. Temple construction has started. His abbajan (father) used to say – ham parinde ko bhi par nahi marne denge” which loosely translates to, “when we said that we will construct Ram Mandir, his father said that he will not let them even come here”.
Now Akhilesh Yadav has reacted very sharply to Yogi’s “abbajan” comment and said, “The chief minister (Yogi Adityanath) knows some other language. He aims to take the election to another side. He should balance his language. I heard the interview yesterday (at Panchayat Aaj Tak) where the chief minister said something about my father. He should keep in mind that I can also say something about his father.”
Akhilesh’s sharp reaction over the use of Muslim terminology to refer to his father shows that he does not even remotely want to be seen as an appeaser of the minority community.
A few years ago, nearly every party was trying to appease the Muslims and bring them on its side to ensure victory, while the BJP realistically banked on Hindu votes. Muslim appeasement was a major element of the political strategy of SP, BSP, and Congress. Today, the appeasement of Muslims, or even being seen as doing so, is forbidden for these parties and their major leaders.
With the election in many states nearing, the ‘secular’ parties that host ‘Iftar’ every year are now set to become ‘icchhadhari Hindu’. Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are a few months away, and before that Akhilesh Yadav and Priyanka Gandhi are on temple run.
Samajwadi Party, led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, fired on Karsevaks and he proudly admits it. Congress party defends Triple Talaq and the former Prime Minister even said, “Muslims have first right over the resources of the country”.
The parties which have taken an anti-Hindu stance throughout their existence and leaders who opposed popular Hindu movements suddenly became Hindu before the elections.
Before the general election in 2019, Akhilesh Yadav declared that he would build a magnificent Vishnu temple in the Chambal region. The SP leader included building a magnificent temple along the lines of the famous Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia. With this announcement, Akhilesh Yadav wanted to put on a new gimmick of soft-Hindutva with the end goal of wooing Hindu voters to his party, but as evident from the results of the 2019 general election – it did not work.
However, Yadav is playing the same “ichhadhari Hindu” card again. As per reports, earlier this week, Akhilesh said that he was a ‘better Hindu’ than BJP leaders. He said that he did not agree with the BJP’s definition of a Hindu that divides the society and spread hatred. Akhilesh also stated that the temples have been a part of the Yadav house in Saifai for a long time. “Netaji has been worshipping Hanuman … why only we are asked such questions? Only BJP is Hindu?” he asked.
It is good to see that every political party in the country is slowly realizing the appeasement of minority communities is no longer acceptable to the majority community, and anything even closer to this is being seen as political suicide.
