Two days before the first phase of the crucial assembly elections in Gujarat, a communally divisive poster has appeared in Surat asking Muslims to unite in favour of the Congress leader, Ahmed Patel.
The poster, which was first spotted by the news agency ANI, asked Muslims to unite and and support Congress for Ahmed Patel to be made ‘Wazir e Alam’ of Gujarat.
Ahmed Patel reacted angrily calling it a dirty trick by a ‘desperate’ BJP, which he said had resorted to its old communal trick in the face of growing anger against the party.
He tweeted, “Putting up fake posters and orchestrating a rumour campaign shows the utter desperation of the BJP. Fearing defeat, do they have to rely on such dirty tricks? I have never ever been a candidate for CM and will never, ever be.
“The moot issue is that BJP is trying very very hard to divert the narrative from its performance of last 22 years to a divisive agenda. Hence their reliance on lies & propaganda.But people of Gujarat have made up their mind this time.”
Despite governing Gujarat for 22 years and its previous claims of having developed the state, the saffron party has made Hindutva politics as one of its core election themes during the ongoing campaign.
On Thursday, Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues reacted to Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s statement calling the former ‘neech (lowly)’ for the prime ministers’ efforts to lower the level of public discourse in this election.
Aiyar had said, “Ye aadmi bahut neech kisam ka aadmi hai, is mein koi sabhyata nahi hai, aur aise mauke par is kisam ki gandi rajniti karne ki kya avashyakta hai?”
A desperate PM linked Aiyar’s statement to the language of Mughals. Speaking in Surat, Modi said, “Congress leaders are speaking in a language that is not acceptable in democracy. One Congress leader, who has studied in best institutions, served as a diplomat, was a Minister in Cabinet, he said Modi is ‘Neech.’ This is insulting. This is nothing but a Mughalai Mindset.”
Experts say that BJP not focussing on the development agenda and picking up irrelevant issues to target Congress smacked of its desperation to divert the attention of the state’s voters from its alleged fake claims of development in the state.