Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh Harnath Singh Yadav on Monday slammed Samajwadi Party's (SP) Akhilesh Yadav for comparing Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah with Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and said that he should tender an apology to country for glorifying Jinnah.
Speaking to ANI Harnath Singh Yadav said, "Yesterday the whole country was celebrating the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel ''Rashtriya Ekta Divas''. On such a historic day, Jinnah, who divided the country, was compared with Gandhi ji, Sardar Patel and Nehru and glorified. What message is Akhilesh Yadav trying to convey by comparing Jinnah to Gandhi ji and saying that country got independence because of Jinnah?"
The BJP MP further attacked Mr Yadav and said that the country is more important than the vote bank.
"You should keep in mind that the country is bigger than votes and everything in the world is small in front of the country. A day will come when you will have to repent for such rhetoric and apologize to the country. Not once but repeatedly," the BJP MP noted.
On the occasion of the 146th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on October 31, Yadav was addressing a gathering when he remarked that Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah studied in the same institute, where they became barristers and fought for India's independence.
"Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah studied in the same institute. They became barristers and fought for India's freedom... It was Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who imposed a ban on an ideology (RSS)," Mr Yadav had said.
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