Upazila elections: Pakistan, Jinnah, Taliban dominate issues,

 Pakistan, Jinnah, Taliban, these words are heard in the election debates and speeches of Uttar Pradesh. India's largest state in terms of population, Uttar Pradesh, is going to assembly elections. This is where the country's largest minority, the Muslim population, lives.

Uttar Pradesh has no direct connection with Pakistan. Neither does Uttar Pradesh border Pakistan. But Pakistan and Jinnah are dominating the electoral atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh.

In recent times, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in his first statement referred to Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and a part of India's freedom movement. Jinnah then came to the centre of political speeches and debates.

During an interview, Akhilesh Yadav said, "Our number one enemy is not Pakistan, that is the BJP..." His statement also became the headlines of the media.

At a political event of the Jat community in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, "Our relationship with you is 650 years old. You also fought the Mughals, we are also fighting."

Recently, BJP MLA and candidate from Muzaffarnagar, Vikram Singh Saini, while addressing an election meeting in a village, said, "Pakistan ki himmat hai kya, jaate thoke pakistan mein. If you want to beat Pakistan like this and those who are traitors here, traitors are eating (abuses) bread here, if you want to keep beating such people, if you want to keep beating, on the knees of the bullet (abuse), then press the button on the lotus flower." - Link link

However, after this statement made against the minorities, the villagers chased out Vikram Singh Saini from the village and the MLA, who was surrounded by the crowd, had to run away with an apology.

Debate on Pakistan, Jinnah, Muslims

Words like Pakistan, Jinnah, Taliban and Mughal are not limited to just political rhetoric, but the debates of TV channels are full of them, which has raised the question of whether the ground issues can be left behind in such a situation.

Samajwadi Party spokesperson Abdul Hafeez Gandhi says, "The BJP has failed to do the politics of development, it has not been able to develop UP, that is why it is doing politics of polarisation."

The Bharatiya Janata Party strongly rejects these allegations. Party spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi says that the discussion of Pakistan and Jinnah's entry was made by Akhilesh Yadav.

"On the day of Sardar Patel's birth anniversary, the entire country was celebrating Rashtriya Ekta Diwas and Akhilesh Yadav was praising Jinnah without any context. Akhilesh is taking the name of Pakistan, Akhilesh is taking jinnah's name, his party MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq is calling the Taliban a freedom movementer and it is being accused of the BJP that we are bringing Pakistan and Jinnah to the polls. We are just reacting to his statement. It is clear who wants to take advantage of pakistan, jinnah and taliban in the elections by taking names."