Jinnah is theirs, ‘ganna’ is ours: JP Nadda on Opposition

Claiming that his party’s government in Uttar Pradesh made record payment to sugarcane farmers, BJP national president J P Nadda attacked the Opposition, saying “Jinnah is theirs and ‘ganna’ is ours”. The BJP leader made this statement more than a month after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav courted a controversy when he mentioned Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in a speech, along with Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Mahatma Gandhi.

Addressing his party workers in Meerut, Nadda said the Yogi Adityanath-led state government made a record payment to sugarcane farmers.

“Sugarcane is ours and Jinnah is their. We will win by contesting on sugarcane and expose their Jinnah mentality,” he said referring to the Assembly elections early next year.

Attacking the Opposition, he claimed that 20 sugar mills were closed during the BSP regime while 11 stopped operations under the previous Samajwadi Party government.

The BJP president said the Swaminathan Commission had recommended that farmers should get one-and-a-half times the production cost but previous Congress government did not do it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave it to farmers, he claimed.

He said earlier farmers used to be “lathicharged” for urea and yet they did not get it.

Due to measures taken by the PM, its is easily available to farmers, he claimed.

He also praised the PM for scrapping the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and abolishing the practice of “triple talaq”.

The BJP president credited the PM with saving people’s lives during the coronavirus pandemic, saying even the country like the USA could not decide “whether to save lives or survive the recession”.

In an apparent jibe at SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Nadda said the leader had termed the coronavirus vaccine as “Modi’s vaccine”.

“Today, I ask him how was Modi’s vaccine,” he said.

“Soon, your ‘lal topi’ (red cap) will turn saffron,” he said referring to the SP.