A few days ago, at an AajTak event, when asked about Akhilesh Yadav’s claim that he is a “bigger Hindu” than Yogi Adityanath, the CM of Uttar Pradesh took a jibe at him, stating that earlier those who used to refer to themselves as “Abbajan” would digest all the ration. With this statement, Yogi Adityanath made it clear that there is no room for minority appeasement under his governance. To this remark of Yogi, Samajwadi Party Supremo Akhilesh Yadav agitatedly responded that the CM needs to keep a check on his words. However, it looks like, the liberals and the opposition just needed another reason to stir controversy and defame CM Yogi Adityanath.
Yogi Adityanath’s ‘abba-jaan’ jibe
During the launch of several development projects in Kushinagar on Sunday, Adityanath said that the Samajwadi Party used to benefit its people from the ration for the poor, leaving them all to starve to death. Referring to Akhilesh Yadav’s preference towards Muslims, he added that ‘those who called their father Abba-jaan used to benefit one community’.
Staunchly, Yogi Adityanath talked about how under his reign no one can think about benefitting from ration for the poor, “Why did the poor not get the ration before 2017? Those who called Abbajan used to digest the ration and people used to die of hunger. Ration used to reach Nepal and Bangladesh. Today no one can swallow the ration of the poor. If swallowed, they will definitely go to jail.”
“A family from Saifai used to loot the entire state. Earlier, those who called their father Abbajan used to benefit a particular section. There used to be caste-based appointment lists. Fair appointments are being made in the BJP government and youth are getting employment”, he added.
Fuming Opposition and left liberals
Crying their nose at UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s “abba-jaan” jibe, Congress spokesperson Tariq Anwar referred to his allegations as “rubbish”. Refuting the claims, Anwar stated that the food was indiscriminately supplied to all. He said, “This is non-sense. Only Yogi can say such rubbish. Its well-known ration distribution was done without any discrimination. It was not distributed keeping a particular community in mind. I guess UP people have started understanding Yogi nonsense.”
Not only him, Rashid Alvi, also jumped into the bandwagon and said, “Yogi never needed the ration, so he doesn’t have an idea. We don’t know who is abbajaan of whom, but for BJP leaders their Abba Jaan is Modi. They will do, what their Abba Jaan will tell. So they should not raise fingers at anyone”.
Yogi-Akhilesh statement war
Yogi Adityanath and Akhilesh Yadav are all set to contest each other in the upcoming UP elections. Ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2022, former CM Akhilesh Yadav has been making attempts to woo Hindus to grab the vote share for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. In such a move, he went on to claim that he is a ‘bigger Hindu’ than Yogi Adityanath to which the latter had replied and said, “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 marnedenge.”
However, the political parties which found support on the ground through minority appeasement are now slowly realizing that the minority card is no longer acceptable to the majority and are thus, trying to do everything in their power to win the majority vote bank.