Lucknow, Dec 6 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Friday flagged the issue of attack on minorities, including Hindus, in Bangladesh and said the “anarchy” would continue as long as “Jinnah’s spirit remains there”.
A day earlier, he had raised the same issue and claimed that the actions of Mughal ruler Babur’s commander in Ayodhya and Sambhal 500 years ago, and the events happening in Bangladesh now, share the same nature and intent.
Speaking here on the occasion of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s death anniversary on Friday, he said the architect of the Constitution had urged people before Independence not to let the country be divided and warned it would lead to a “fight to the finish”.
“In Bangladesh, Hindus, Buddhists and people from other minority communities are being killed by fundamentalists. They are being burnt. Their properties are being looted. The dignity of women is being undermined.
“As long as Jinnah’s spirit remains there, this kind of anarchy will continue. The poor and the deprived are being exploited there. This is the sin of India’s partition in 1947,” the chief minister said.
He noted that in 1947, there was a large population of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Till 1971, 22 per cent of the population in Bangladesh were Hindus but it has reduced to 6 to 8 per cent now, Adityanath said.
Adityanath said Ambedkar had warned the public about this in 1946-47. Without naming anyone, he said, “Today some people are deceiving society and spreading lies. These are the same people who were silent when the villages of Dalits were being burnt by the Nizam of Hyderabad and exploited.” “At that time too Ambedkar had written an open letter that all Dalits in Hyderabad being tortured should leave the Nizam’s state and go to Maharashtra. But they should not change their religion.
“The people of the Hyderabad Nizam and the pro-Pakistan public tried to tempt Ambedkar, but he did not budge,” Adityanath said.
He said that those who followed Babasaheb Ambedkar are safe in India and are getting the benefit of reservation. “Our government respects all of them and provides them with every facility,” Adityanath said.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also said those misled by the words of Jogendra Nath Mandal, the first law and labour minister of Pakistan, are facing atrocities in that country and Bangladesh.
“Voices are being raised by those who want to work for the Dalits. At the same time, those who have always exploited the Dalits by making them their vote bank are silent on Bangladesh. This is because they cannot accept the truth and cannot even speak the truth.” “Showing a copy of the Constitution is just pretence for these people. They have nothing to do with the values of Babasaheb. Even before this, they had tried to kill Babasaheb by stabbing his original Constitution,” Adityanath said.
Hitting out at the Congress, he said, “The Preamble is the soul of the Constitution. The Congress has removed the soul of the Preamble of the Constitution. Babasaheb was insulted by imposing Emergency in the country in 1975.” “They amended the Preamble and inserted words which Babasaheb had not written in the original Constitution. In such a situation, the real face of those who are pretending needs to be brought before the people,” Adityanath said.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also said the state government would establish the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar International Center in Lucknow to help in research on the architect of the Constitution can be done to take his philosophy to every village and every home.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)