New Delhi: Those “feeding off Bharat” should get their DNA tested, and they will find that their DNA is Bharatiya, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in Lucknow Wednesday, alluding to Indian Muslims at an event organised by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpieces Organizer and Panchjanya.
Without directly mentioning Muslims, Adityanath said they need to find new idols instead of idolising the likes of Aurangzeb in a conversation with Panchjanya editor Prafulla Ketkar and Organiser editor Hitesh Shankar.
Referring to a remark made by Indonesian Prime Minister Prabowo Subianto on his Republic Day visit to India in January this year, Adityanath said that even the PM of a Muslim country has said his DNA is Bharatiya.
“If those feeding off Bharat get their DNA tested, they will also find it to be Bharatiya,” he said. “Stop praising foreign invaders because when truths like Sambhal emerge, they will have nowhere to show their face,” Adityanath said, referring to Aurangzeb.
Last week, Abu Azmi, president of the Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra state unit, stirred up a controversy when he said that during Aurangzeb’s reign, India’s border reached Afghanistan and Burma (Myanmar) and that the much-maligned Mughal king was not a “cruel administrator”, but one who “built many temples”. “Our GDP accounted for 24 percent (of the world GDP), and India was called a golden sparrow (during his regime),” said the MLA from the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency in Mumbai.
In what appeared to be an indirect swipe at Azmi, Adityanath said that those who worship Aurangzeb should name their children after him and prepare to suffer the fate of his father, Shah Jahan, who, the UP CM claimed, was mercilessly tortured by his son.
In the past, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has stated that Hindus and Muslims in India have the same DNA, indicating that present-day Muslims in the country are Hindu converts.
When asked about the Sambhal, Adityanath said: “Sambhal is a reality.” The Puranas mentioned Sambhal 5,000 years ago, while Islam has been around for 1,400 years, he said.
“In 1526, the Bhagwan Vishnu Mandir in Sambhal was demolished, and in 1528, the Ram Lalla Mandir in Ayodhya was destroyed. Forcibly seizing someone’s religious sites and trampling upon faith is not acceptable,” he said.
“Preparations are in full swing in Sambhal—we will reclaim every inch of our land,” he added, arguing that there are 68 sacred sites in Sambhal, while the administration has identified only 18 so far.
At the programme, titled ‘Manthan: Mahakumbh and Beyond’, the UP chief minister also spoke at length about the “success” of the Mahakumbh organised by the state.
When asked by Ketkar about his “dual identity” as an administrator and a monk, Adityanath said that he received enormous support from all the saints and monks during Kumbh, possibly due to his bhagwa or saffron identity. Stating that he is proud of his saffron identity, Adityanath argued that the whole world one day would wear saffron.
The CM also took a swipe at the Opposition during whose rule, he said, Kumbh was synonymous with dirt, anarchy, and chaos.
During the first Kumbh organised in post-independence India when the Congress was in power at both the state and the Centre, at least a thousand people lost their lives, he said.
Until 2019, when “videshi vampantis (leftists from abroad)” used to come to India to cover the Kumbh and create an image of India as backward and dirty, they would find enormous material, he added.
In the last few years, however, Prayagraj, a city formerly associated with “mafia raj (rule)” has completely transformed, Adityanath said as images of slain gangster Atiq Ahmed appeared on the projector.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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