I lingered on a news on Page 6 of Times of India today.
It was on Smriti Irani’s campaign in Jewar on Monday where the Union minister questioned Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) on he seeking help of Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) who was almost abusive of the very people of Uttar Pradesh they are wooing ahead of the assembly polls.
What was the abuse? Times of India, understandably, makes no mention of it.
I looked for this abuse in Indian Express but the newspaper has altogether blanked the coverage of Smriti Irani’s campaign, the one who put Rahul Gandhi on run from Amethi. Indian Express, again understandably, though has a cozy picture of Akhilesh Yadav draping a shawl around Mamata Banerjee on her arrival in the State on Monday.
So I searched for that elusive “abuse” and here it was—Mamata Banerjee, in a rally in Bankura, West Bengal on March 24, 2021:
Those who know Bengali or polyglot could hear it themselves in the video below.
Now I believe Mamata Banerjee would be in Lucknow today and address a virtual press conference with Akhilesh Yadav, pleading with the “same goons, ones in saffron clothes, with tilak on their foreheads, chewing pan masala,,” to vote for Samajwadi Party.
What’s more she would again be knocking at the doorsteps of UP-ites for votes in 2024 national elections when she intends to put Trinamool Congress in fray.
A subtext to this background should be obvious to everyone. Mamata overwhelmingly rode on support of Muslim voters to win the Bengal polls last year who en masse rejected even one of its own, Abbas Siddique of Furfura Sharif shrine, who was in almost a communal alliance with Congress and Left.
As for Akhilesh Yadav, so pronounced is his leaning on Muslim vote—BSP chief Mayawati says Akhilesh thinks Muslim votes are in his pocket—that with Mamata by his side he could hope for the last Muslim vote in the State, what if Asaduddin Owaisi is in the fray.
That’s why our shameful media is busy removing the stains of past which could put their leaders of choice in poor light.
They know if the BJP has won such overwhelming numbers in 2014, 2017 and 2019 polls in India’s most critical political state, those voters in “saffron clothes” with “tilak on their foreheads” who have been dubbed “goons” must not have played a minor role.
So why rake it up now and derail what Akhilesh Yadav hopes to achieve in Uttar Pradesh and for which Mamata Banerjee has flown in to lend her support?
Who knows we could even have Mahua Moitra as a star campaigner for Samajwadi Party who once called UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath as “Gudduji” who rules a “vanar sena commune.”
Mahua is the one who recently made the “gaumutra” drinking jibe on BJP; not to speak of her bigotry when she insinuated Jains eat non-vegetarian food secretly.
And we are not even raking up who bristles with anger whenever “Jai Shri Ram” is uttered in her proximity!