By
Ram Puniyani for New Age Islam
17 November
2021
Akhilesh
Yadav on Jinnah: Communal Signalling in Contemporary Politics
Main
Points:
1. Jinnah,
irrespective of his 11th August Pakistan Constituent Assembly speech had fallen
into the trap of communal politics.
2. Savarkar,
Golwalkar theorized the secondary place of Muslims.
3. The likes of
Rajnath Singh and Akhilesh Yadav have more interest in their political goals
rather than the whole truth!
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As the
intensity of communalism is on the rise the use of communal symbols, icons for
present political goals are on the rise. Icons are also projected and
highlighted to give the messages of the agenda of particular politics. As the
fulcrum of Indian politics is tilting more towards ‘divisive politics’, more
and more political personalities/parties are resorting to this abhorrent game.
One recalls
that Lal Krishna Advani, who brought BJP to the political forefront through Ram
temple agitation, Babri demolition and consequent communal polarization initially
had a hard liner image and at that time he himself as a clever politician
proposed the name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had moderate image. As time
passed Advani decided to project the moderate image for himself. As he visited
Pakistan to inaugurate Katasraj Temple, he also visited Jinnah’s Mausoleum.
In visitors
book he wrote, "There are many people who leave an inerasable stamp on
history. But there are a few who actually create history. Qaed-E-Azam Mohd Ali
Jinnah was one such rare individual," He also quoted 11th August speech of
Jinnah in Pakistan Constituent assembly, to show that Jinnah was very secular.
In the process he also undermined the Akhand Bharat goal of his parent
organization the RSS. What he stated was part of the truth but for his
organization RSS; Jinnah has been persona non grata as he is regarded as
creator of Pakistan, and so Advani himself got kicked up in Margdarshak Mandal,
(Advisors Group) and was marginalized from the politics.
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Also
Read: Akhilesh Should Know That Indian Muslims are Not
Beholden to Jinnah
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Now another
leader in UP Akhilesh Yadav, on the eve of forthcoming elections recalled that
"Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah
studied in the same institute. They became barristers and fought for India's
freedom," The other side of this was that IT cell (BJP) shared only part
of the video to project as if Yadav is saying that Jinnah got us freedom. This
is distortion of Yadav said.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah — Dawn archives
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Can the
Indian nationalists, Gandhi, Nehru and Patel be grouped in the same category as
Jinnah? That way Jinnah’s political career is not a straight line. During
freedom movement we see many leaders began as Indian nationalists and later got
drawn in to communal vortex. We see Savarkar also began as anti-British
revolutionary, later led the communal Hindu Mahasabha and opposed the freedom
movement and became the subservient part of British policy of ‘divide and
rule’.
Jinnah also
has a trajectory of beginning as the member of Indian National Congress. Was
liberal, modern and secular to begin with but later due to differences with
Gandhi on the concept of Non-Cooperation movement, drawing the average people
into anti British struggle, he drifted away and in due course went on to lead
the Muslim League in due course.
Akhilesh
Yadav is advising that we should turn the history book to learn what he is
saying is true. One will like to remind him to read the history in full and not
in a selective way. The full trajectory of Jinnah is more complicated with a
major turn after 1920s, when Gandhi launched the ‘Non Cooperation movement’
based on non violence and Satyagrah. Jinnah wanted to remain a
constitutionalist within the British framework and felt that involving the
people at large will create unwanted turmoil. Gandhi and later other leaders of
Congress saw mass movement as the part of process of building of the nation,
this process was labeled as ‘India: Nation in the making’.
Jinnah,
irrespective of his 11th August Pakistan Constituent Assembly speech (state
will not interfere in your religion} had fallen into the trap of communal
politics. He did begin as the best Ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity and entered
in to Lucknow Pact with Congress leader Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1916).
Later he started feeling that after Independence the Hindus will be a majority
and Muslim interests will be hampered. In a way he became victim of the
delusion that Muslim League was the representative of all the Muslim and Muslim
interests will not be safe with Hindu dominated Congress ruling the country.
This was a
serious flaw in his politics. From here he started looking at politics through
communal prism and now he aimed to preserve the interests of Muslims after the
British leave. To Motilal Nehru committee he put several demands presumably for
the interests of Muslims, but these demands were mostly for preservation of
dominance of elite Muslims.
The Hindu
communalism at this time was emphasizing that this is a Hindu nation. Later
Savarkar, Golwalkar theorized the secondary place of Muslims. In 1930 in Muslim
League Convention Sir Mohammad Iqbal asked for separate homeland for Muslims,
Pakistan. Jinnah at that time did not take it seriously. In Assembly elections
(1937) Muslim League did not fare well and Congress which won massively refused
to incorporate Muslim League in the Ministries.
Around this
time Jinnah’s separatism got a boost and in 1940 in Muslim League convention he
put forward the demand for Pakistan. British also had important role in
encouraging Jinnah to put forward this demand. The selective presentation of
Jinnah’s role in freedom movement and putting him in the same category of
Gandhi, Nehru and Patel is totally misplaced as Akhilesh Yadav is blind to the
role of Jinnah as the supreme leader of Muslim League. This is generally what
such leaders are doing. Selectively picking up the part which suits their
political agenda and to turn a blind eye to the whole picture.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (L) and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav (R)
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On similar
grounds Hindu nationalists present Savarkar’s anti British activities in the
pre Andman Period and eulogizing him and forget his role as ideologue of ‘Two
Nation theory’, as President of Hindu Mahasabha in keeping aloof from freedom
movement, in helping British war efforts in second World was and his being one
of the accused in Gandhi murder case.
It is
necessary that underlying ideology of leaders are presented in full to evaluate
them properly, but obviously the likes of Rajnath Singh and Akhilesh Yadav have
more interest in their political goals rather than the whole truth!
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-politics/jinnah-gandhi-nehru-patel-akhilesh/d/125784
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