Fadnavis vs Pawar over batenge slogan

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s “batenge to katenge” slogan for Hindu unity has divided BJP’s own allies and cadres.

After Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar dissociated with the slogan saying he did not support it, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said the Nationalist Congress Party chief “needed some more time to understand the import of these words”.

“Ajit Pawar has stayed with ideologues that were anti-Hindu for decades. There is no real secularism in those who call themselves secular. He (Ajit Pawar) was with those for whom opposing Hindutva was secularism. It will take him some time to fathom the mood of the people,” said Fadnavis about BJP ally Ajit Pawar’s “there is no place for batenge toh katenge” slogan in Maharashtra.

Seeking to defend the slogan and counter an angst building up against it within the NDA and BJP bloc, Fadnavis said Ajit Pawar’s understanding of the message was influenced by his former allies.

“These people (former allies of Ajit Pawar, including the Congress and Sharad Pawar) either did not understand the sentiment of the people or did not understand the meaning of this statement,” said Maharashtra Deputy CM Fadnavis.

Fadnavis was, however, silent on his own party colleague and late saffron veteran Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde’s remarks that she did not favour the “batenge toh katenge slogan.”

Pankaja has said that the burden of a leader was to own up and represent everyone and therefore, no such topic (read the said slogan) could be brought to Maharashtra.

Former Congressman Ashok Chavan, who switched over to the BJP in February this year, has also objected to the slogan saying it was irrelevant and not in good taste.

“Personally, I am not in the favour of such a slogan,” he said. Top opposition leaders of Maharashtra, including Shiv Sena UBT’s Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and NCP (SP)’s Sharadchandra Pawar, have meanwhile asked the BJP to come clean on “conflicting messages from Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

Modi has been using the slogan “ek hain to safe hain” with the opposition leaders describing the phraseology as a move to tweak Yogi’s message.

BJP leaders, however, said both Modi and Yogi were saying the same thing, although in different ways.

“The message is of Hindu unity,” they said. The Hindu unity pitch was first laid by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on the eve of Maharashtra and Jharkhand election cycle.