Amit Shah, Yogi, Rajnath invoke Pulwama to campaign in Uttar Pradesh

If it was the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013 that was invoked by BJP to create the fear of the ‘other’ in 2014, Prime Minister Modi freely compared ‘Shamshan’ and ‘Kabristan’ and electricity supply on Diwali and during Eid while campaigning for the UP Assembly election in 2017.

That was the year when the BJP also falsely raised the bogey of Hindus escaping from Kairana. Now again in 2019, the party has fallen back on the communal plank to retain its seats in Uttar Pradesh. Will it succeed?

Call him Masood Azhar or Azhar Masood. But the Pakistani ‘terrorist’ is being invoked by BJP leaders in their election campaign. The UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath led the charge in Saharanpur on Sunday when he called upon the people to give a befitting reply to those who he accused are speaking the ‘language’ of the Pakistani.

A Press note issued by the BJP read: “Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath today invoked nationalism saying, Saharanpur should ensure defeat of the son-in-law of global terrorist Azhar Masood. He who speaks the language of terrorist Azhar Masood has to be defeated from this land of patriots."

This left nothing to imagination since the Congress candidate in Saharanpur is Imran Masood, who had polled 4.08 lakh votes in 2014 and yet had lost to the BJP.

With reports of rising anger against the BJP in the villages, where people are questioning the party’s record of governance and its divisive agenda, the party appears to have concluded that its best bet lay in communalising the election and polarising voters between ‘nationalists’ and critics of the BJP Government as ‘anti-nationals’.

Observers wondered if the Yogi had violated the Model Code of Conduct. Can political rivals now get away by calling Yogi Adityanath ‘Nagnath’ or ‘ Saanpnath’ or, for that matter, call him Ajay Singh ‘Dusht’ in place of Ajay Singh Bisht, wondered a senior citizen.

But oblivious of the Election Commission’s directive that political parties should refrain from using the Indian Army or the suicide bombing in Pulwama, other BJP leaders like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani were quick to jump into the bandwagon on Sunday.

Yogi Adityanath without taking name of Congress candidate Imran Masood said that the damaad of Azahar Masood should be taught a lesson in Saharanpur. Addressing a rally at Agra, BJP president Amit Shah declared that the ‘ nationalist’ people of UP would teach a lesson to people who were raising questions on Pulwama and the Indian air-strike.

It was too much of a coincidence when Rajnath Singh in Lucknow and Smriti Irani in Kanpur singled out the opposition for questioning the ‘valour’ of the armed forces, for ‘deriding’ the armed forces and for allegedly accusing the Army Chief for speaking like a ‘goonda’.

Election Commission of India directed on March 11, “It is pertinent to mention here that the Armed Forces of a nation are the guardian of its frontiers, security and the political system. They are apolitical and neutral stakeholders in a modern democracy. It is therefore necessary that political parties and leaders exercise great caution while making any reference to the Armed Forces in their political campaigns”