Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said it is the country's misfortune that generations were not made aware of sacrifices of national heroes, citing example Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, in whose name a university will come up in Aligarh.
Modi is scheduled to arrive in the city to lay the foundation of the Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University.
He also said that earlier roadblocks were created in the implementation of welfare schemes meant for the poor, but now there are no such hurdles and the benefits of these schemes are reaching the needy.
It is ironic that Raja Mahendra Pratap's Jat connection is being used for vote bank politics. He could not have cared less for his caste.' 'He was aware of the hold caste had on people's lives, and always rose above this kind of narrow thinking.' 'He mentions that once when he landed at Dwarka the priests asked him about his caste. He replied that he was a sweeper. The priests denied him entry. "I did not care to visit it," he writes, "when it was surrounded by people who had no regard for humanity".'
'The BJP politics of appropriating icons from its ideological adversaries could only be a desperate attempt to extend the Jat-Muslim divide in Uttar Pradesh. Why this desperation when it can comfortably get votes on the plank of economic development?'
A row erupted on Friday over plans by the Bharatiya Janata Party to observe the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Raja Mahendra Pratap at the Aligarh Muslim University campus with its vice chancellor warning of a potential "communal conflagration" and the saffron party defending the move.
Bose's views make it amply clear how he would have dealt with communal and supremacist forces post-Independence had he been there at the helm instead of Nehru, points out Utkarsh Mishra.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday challenged Prime Minister Narerndra Modi's claim about the crime situation in Uttar Pradesh, asking him to check data of the home department and other central agencies.
The Jat vote is crucial in winning at least 40 assembly seats in Western UP, which has been in the grip of a widespread farmer movement, reports Nitin Kumar.
He said more than one crore children have sent him 'their Mann Ki Baat' via postcards which have come from many parts of the country and even from abroad.
'In politics, not everything is spoken and there are a lot of messaging done very discreetly.'
If he doesn't win next year, it will set back the party's prospects in 2024. If he wins, it will be seen as his win as much as the BJP high command's, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Using the Jinnah portrait as an issue, and by demonising AMU and consequently Indian Muslims, the politics of communal polarisation is sought to be played out ahead of the Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll and to sustain it till the next Lok Sabha election, says Mohammad Sajjad.
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