New Delhi: The Congress on Monday criticized Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his “abba jaan” remark, saying it comes ahead of the state assembly polls where the BJP has no other agenda except polarisation.
Party spokesperson Gourav Vallabh also said Nathuram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi, was “India’s first terrorist”, as he hit out at Adityanath for accusing the Congress of being the “creator of terrorism”.
Addressing a programme in Kushinagar on Sunday, Adityanath alleged that people did not get rations before 2017 like they do now.
“Because then, people who say ‘abba jaan’ used to digest the rations. The rations for Kushinagar used to go to Nepal and Bangladesh. Today, if anybody tries to swallow the rations meant for poor people, he will land in jail,” the chief minister said.
‘Abba jaan’ is an Urdu term for father.
Vallabh, when asked to comment on Adityanath’s ‘abba jaan’ remarks, said, “Yogi Adityanath has come to power while saying ‘abba jaan’ and ‘bhai jaan’ and with elections nearing he has started doing ‘Shamshaan-kabristan’.”
“Why has this ‘abba jaan’ come now? It is because elections are nearing. These are indicative of elections and since the BJP has nothing else to showcase or talk about, they have again resorted to ‘shamshaan-kabristan’,” he said.
“Such experiments only work once and not everytime. For, the entire Uttar Pradesh knows their real face now as they are demanding answers from them, why lakhs of people were killed during second wave of coronavirus and bodies were seen floating in river Ganga,” he said.
On Adityanath accusing the Congress of being a creator of terrorism, the Congress leader said that being the chief minister of the biggest state in India, Adityanath is making cheap remarks and there is no place for petty politicians in Indian polity.
“Yogi Adityanath is a person of a cheap mindset. There is nothing more, nothing less,” he said, asking him if he knew that his ideologues were sitting in the lap of the British during the time of Independence.
“We have seen Mahatma Gandhi fall to a terrorist. We have lost Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh and many others…Who freed Maulana Masood Azhar? What agreement have you made with the Taliban?,” he asked.
“One who killed Mahatma Gandhi was the first terrorist. The first terrorist of India is Nathuram Godse…,” he said.