A message being widely circulated on Whatsapp claims Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has promised to construct 2000 new mosques in the West and Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh if his party is voted to power in the upcoming 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. According to the message, in addition to the 2000 mosques, the SP chief pledged a 30% reservation for Muslims by abolishing Dalits and Backward classes reservations.
The message further read that if the Samajwadi party is voted to power, Ayodhya would be renamed and a sum of Rs 1000 crore would be spared for the construction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
Akhilesh Yadav was also quoted as stating that his govt would repeal the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020 (Love Jihad law). “This is my promise to Muslims,” Akhilesh Yadav declares in the Whatsapp message that has reportedly gone viral.
Sharing the Whatsapp forward, a Twitter user Madan Nayak going by handle @mgnayak5 wrote in Hindi: “यह व्हाट्सऐप मैसेज समाजवादी पार्टी के आईटी सेल द्वारा यूपी मे मुसलमानों के व्हाट्सऐप पर भेजा जा रहा है, इस मैसेज को 100 करोड़ हिंदुओं के पास खासकर यूपी के एक-एक हिंदुओं के पास भेजें,” roughly translating as, “The IT cell of the Samajwadi Party has been sending this WhatsApp message to Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, asking them to forward the same 100 crore Hindus, particularly every Hindu in the state of Uttar Pradesh.”
यह व्हाट्सऐप मैसेज समाजवादी पार्टी के आईटी सेल द्वारा यूपी मे मुसलमानों के व्हाट्सऐप पर भेजा जा रहा है, इस मैसेज को 100 करोड़ हिंदुओं के पास खासकर यूपी के एक-एक हिंदुओं के पास भेजें
— MADAN NAYAK 🇮🇳 (@mgnayak5) January 13, 2022
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Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar corespondent Aditya Tiwari spoke to Samajwadi Party spokesperson Manoj Kaka to know the truth behind the viral message. Kaka termed the massage absolutely fake. He said that those who are disseminating misleading info claiming that if the SP govt is formed, the construction of the Ram temple will be halted, are spreading lies and rumours.
Akhilesh’s sops to woo voters in Uttar Pradesh
While there are no media reports to substantiate the claims made in the Whatsapp forward, many media reports suggest that Akhilesh Yadav, taking a cue from the AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, has promised to provide 300 units of free electricity to households and free electricity for irrigation to farmers if voted to power in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. Yadav has also tried to woo the vote of the youths by promising to distribute laptops among the youth and students in the state if voted to power.
It may be recalled that AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal made similar poll promises to guarantee free electricity in the states of Goa and Punjab, where assembly elections are due later this year.
Reacting to Akhilesh Yadav’s, UP CM Yogi Adityanath had said: “He [Akhilesh] should be asked that if his government never gave electricity, to begin with, how can they give it for free.”
Muslim appeasement politics of Samajwadi Party
The Samajwadi Party has always been known for its Muslim appeasement politics. In fact, recently, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi had during an election rally launched a fierce attack on Samajwadi Party reminding its supremo Akhilesh Yadav how SP had come to power in UP with the help of Muslim votes.
Akhilesh Yadav, too, had praised Muhammad Ali Jinnah while speaking at a party rally during the Samajwadi Vijay Rath Yatra. The conference was held in October in the Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi Party Chief was seen glorifying Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and architect of the Indian partition.
It may be recalled how, when Akhilesh was the CM of UP, he had suspended the Home Secretary for merely calling a meeting on the issue of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
In fact, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had also once reminded Yadav that when he was CM, his administration was busy creating Muslim graveyards (kabristans) to placate his vote bank, and his father had ordered security personnel to fire bullets on Kar Sevaks when he was in power.
