Atul Chandra
With Assembly elections drawing close, communal atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh is gradually getting surcharged. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s remark that before 2017 ration meant for the poor was siphoned off by those who said “abba jaan”, a direct reference to Muslims, is a pointer of things to come.
Yogi, who became the chief minister in 2017, was criticizing the previous governments for their policy of appeasement at a foundation stone laying event in Kushinagar on September 12. He did not stop at that. Pointing to the women constables who were on duty at the venue he reportedly said that they teach a lesson to Romeos who say “abba jaan”. Yogi had earlier referred to Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party patriarch, as “abba jaan” which, though harmless on the face of it, provoked Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party president.
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Akhilesh Yadav accused the chief minister of using divisive language and Asaduddin Owaisi of All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) said that Yogi should have stuck to the word “pitaji”.
“Abba jaan” jibe may appear innocuous but is potentially as divisive as the “kabristan aur shamshaan” remark made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017.
Further build-up to the politics of polarisation continued with BJP’s MLA from Meerut’s Sardhana constituency, Sangeet Som, who was an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, asserted that his party will rebuild all temples that were demolished to construct mosques.
Sangeet Som gained prominence after the bloody riots in Muzaffarnagar in August-September 2013. Those riots and a false narrative on exodus of Hindus from Kairana in 2016 polarised voters and helped the BJP sweep the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and later the Assembly elections in 2017. A similar effort to create a communal chasm is now being made for votes in Western UP, which has a sizeable population of Muslims. Unfortunately Yogi, who claims to have taken the State’s development to new heights, is in the vanguard of communal politics with his latest remarks, some opposition leaders feel.
Owaisi’s AIMIM, which is perceived to be the BJP’s B-team, is not too far behind. Posters put up by AIMIM workers in Sambhal claimed that the land once belonged to Ghazis, the Muslim invaders, stirred a controversy before the posters were removed.
Sameer Singh of the BJP defended the CM’s abba jaan quip. It is neither unparliamentary nor unconstitutional, he said. “That ration from public distribution shops did not reach the poor during Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav’s rule is an incontrovertible fact, whereas during Covid-19 pandemic free ration to lakhs of poor irrespective of their caste or religion,” Singh asserted. He claimed that the opposition parties had nothing to boast of and ranting on communalism is what they are capable of.
Congress spokesman Hilal Naqvi explained that abba jaan-saying people “digested” the entire ration was meant to paint a particular community as thief and communalises the society. Such exclusivist policy should be juxtaposed with inclusive communal politics in which benefits reach every segment of society.
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On appeasement Naqvi was of the view that BJP going to town after inducting OBCs in Union ministry was also appeasement politics and was the same as some party appointing a Muslim minister.
Samajwadi Party spokesman expects the politics of hate to get more vicious as elections draw near because “the government has nothing to show in terms of development”.