CM Yogi says India would be different if Modi were PM in 1947

CM Yogi Adityanath said the Congress had failed the country by prioritising political power.

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has accused the Congress of being responsible for India’s Partition and the violence that followed, arguing that the country’s history could have been different under leaders such as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel or Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Speaking at an event in Lucknow marking Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, CM Yogi said the Congress had failed the country by prioritising political power and alleged that the consequences of Partition continue to affect India.“Had Narendra Modi been the Prime Minister of India at the time of Independence, nobody would have been able to damage India in the slightest,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.He also invoked Patel, saying that a leader of his stature would not have allowed India to be divided.“If a person like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel were the Prime Minister at that time, nobody would have been able to disintegrate India … The country had to pay a heavy price for the cowardice of these Congress members — a character you all witnessed during the CAA protests,” he added.Adityanath alleged that areas including Sindh, Punjab and Bengal were handed over to Pakistan despite what he described as their Hindu and regional demographic character.“Bengal was Bengali-dominated. All Hindu villages were forcibly given to Bangladesh. This shameful act was committed by the Congress, which was extra-restless for power, and on whom the country had reposed its trust. It repaid that trust with betrayal,” he said.The chief minister also criticised the Congress over its response to attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh. He alleged that the party remained silent because it was concerned about losing electoral support.“They feared that reacting to the events in Bangladesh might cause their vote bank here to drift away. To them, the murder of Dalit Hindus holds no significance; what matters is their own vote bank,” he said.Adityanath further argued that internal divisions based on caste, region and language had historically weakened India and created opportunities for outside forces.“When such infighting exists, then conspiracy easily creeps in,” he said.He said the consequences of Partition could still be seen in the form of terrorism, Naxalism, Maoism and extremism. He also questioned the Congress’s claims about its role in India’s freedom struggle and accused the party of presenting itself as indispensable to the creation of modern India.“This also draws our attention to the silence we have all maintained regarding that pre-1947 conspiracy. Yet, even today, these people move before society, acting as if they were the ones who created India, and that without them, India would not have come into existence. It is a truly strange situation,” he said, describing Partition as the “darkest chapter of humanity.”Turning to what he described as the Congress’s political legacy, Adityanath said institutions across the country had been named after one political family.“Every institution in the country came to bear the name of that very clan. Every single institution was named after that clan, and we all stood by silently, merely watching. What are they doing even today? What are their actions like now?” he said.The UP chief minister also defended the Citizenship Amendment Act and attacked the Congress’s opposition to it.“There was no justification for opposing the act. The act contained a provision regarding Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh — territories that were once part of undivided India and share a heritage spanning thousands of years. It stipulated that if a Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi, or Christian from these countries had been forced to leave and had sought refuge in India for five years, they would be granted Indian citizenship,” he said.He argued that the legislation did not provide for taking away land or property from Muslims or political parties, and accused opponents of using the issue to provoke protests.“Nowhere did it say that we would seize land belonging to Muslims, the Congress, or the Samajwadi Party. There was no such provision in the Act. Yet, attempts were made to incite agitation across the country,” he said.