Now, CM Yogi equates Indian Army with Lord Hanuman

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has done it again. This time he equated Lord Hanuman with the Indian Army and the incident of ‘Lanka dahan’ with the surgical strike that was carried out by the Army deep inside Pakistan.

Addressing an election rally in Baghpat on Wednesday, he said that Indian Army is like Hanuman. “Jis tarah Hanuman ji ne Lanka mein ghus kar Lanka jala dee usi tarah Indian Army ne Pakistan ke andar ghus kar aatanki thikano ko khatam kar diya (The way Lord Hanuman set Lanka afire similarly the Indian Army destroyed terror camps being operated from Pakistan)”, he said.

He gave the statement in reference to the air strikes that were carried out by the Indian Air Force in Balakot post Pulwama. He even said that such strikes were possible only because India has a Prime Minister like Narendra Modi who knows that the Indian Army is very powerful and can go deep into enemy territory to end terrorists.

This is the second time he mentioned the Indian Army in his election speeches. Earlier on April 1 while addressing a rally in Saharanpur he had called the Indian Army, ‘Modi ki sena’. This statement drew all round condemnation. The Election Commission too took note of this statement and issued a notice to Yogi asking him to give his reply by April 5.

The reference to the Indian surgical strike and the Indian Army’s valour is being referred to freely in this election campaign by BJP leaders despite a clear warning from the Election Commission to keep the Indian Army out of politics.

“It was pre-planned strategy of Yogi Adityanath to link Indian Army with Hanuman to get two fold benefits. One, to communalise the election campaign as western UP has over 38% of Muslim population and two, to remind the people about the surgical strike because the euphoria BJP generated after the strike has started dying down,” Dr Muhammad Rizwan Safdar, of Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut said.

He said the caste consolidation in the form of the mahagathbandhan and the clarity among Muslims to vote for a candidate which can defeat the BJP has forced Chief Minister to look for some other strategy. “In 2014, there was communal divide because of Muzaffarnagar riots. But this time that divide is not there. The dalits and backwards are united and will vote against the BJP because of their allegiance with BSP and SP respectively. The Jat and Gujjars too have more or less made up their mind. In this tough scenario you can expect much more analogy between Hanuman and the Indian Army,” the Professor said.

A senior official of the Election Commission said that it has sought a report from DM, Baghpat about CM’s statement and will take action after getting a report from ground zero.