NEW DELHI – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Mondayhit-out at Congress party and questioned why it involves Pakistan indomestic polls.
The BJP chief raised the question in a tweet after former Rajya Sabha MPMani Shankar Aiyar reportedly backed Jinnah’s portrait in Aligarh MuslimUniversity.
Jinnah has again hit headlines as some groups have protested against theportrait of Pakistan’s founder at the office of Aligarh Muslim Universitystudent union’s office.
The matter became a controversy after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’sAligarh MP Satish Gautam questioned the portrait’s presence.
“Congress and Pakistan have amazing telepathy. Yesterday PakistanGovernment remembered Tipu Sultan, whose Jayanti Congress marks withfanfare and today Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar admires Jinnah,” Said Amit Shah ina tweet.
Last year in December, the Congress suspended Mani Shankar Aiyar from theprimary membership of the party. Aiyer, however, had earlier expressedregret for his comments after public censure from Congress vice-presidentRahul Gandhi.
“Be it Gujarat or Karnataka polls, I fail to understand why Congressinvolves Pakistan!,” Shah added.
Stating that during Gujarat elections we saw how dinner meetings withtopmost Pakistan officials were held to defeat BJP and now mutual love forTipu Sultan and Jinnah, Shah added, ” I appeal to Congress not to involveforeign nations in our domestic politics. Let’s keep the discourse civiland positive.”
On Friday, Pakistan tweeted about 18th-century ruler Tipu Sultan and thenreleased a video remembering him on his 218th death anniversary.
Tipu was a ruler of the erstwhile kingdom of Mysore, and is considered bysome historians to be an implacable enemy of the British East IndiaCompany. He was killed in May 1799 while defending Srirangapatna againstthe British forces.
Glorifying the 18th century Mysore ruler, Pakistan praised Tipu Sultansaying since he was trained in the art of warfare and had a fascination forlearning.
The text in a video further stated that the Sultan ensured the right ofminorities. He built a church, the first in Mysore, at the request of theFrench.
The video also labeled him ‘the last arrow in the arsenal’ who could stopthe British Empire.
Last year, President Ram Nath Kovind had hailed Tipu Sultan, saying he dieda heroic death fighting the British, remarks that came in the backdrop ofprotests by the BJP in Karnataka against his glorification.