Lucknow:Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Friday flagged the issue of attack on minorities, including Hindus, in Bangladesh and said the "anarchy" would continue as long as "Jinnah's spirit remains there". A day earlier, he had raised the same issue and claimed that the actions of Mughal ruler Babur's commander in Ayodhya and Sambhal 500 years ago, and the events happening in Bangladesh now, share the same nature and intent.
Speaking here on the occasion of Bhimrao Ambedkar's death anniversary on Friday, he said the architect of the Constitution had urged people before Independence not to let the country be divided and warned it would lead to a "fight to the finish". "In Bangladesh, Hindus, Buddhists and people from other minority communities are being killed by fundamentalists. They are being burnt. Their properties are being looted. The dignity of women is being undermined.
"As long as Jinnah's spirit remains there, this kind of anarchy will continue. The poor and the deprived are being exploited there. This is the sin of India's partition in 1947," the chief minister said. He noted that in 1947, there was a large population of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Till 1971, 22 per cent of the population in Bangladesh were Hindus but it has reduced to 6 to 8 per cent now, Adityanath said.
Adityanath said Ambedkar had warned the public about this in 1946-47. Without naming anyone, he said, "Today some people are deceiving society and spreading lies. These are the same people who were silent when the villages of Dalits were being burnt by the Nizam of Hyderabad and exploited." "At that time too Ambedkar had written an open letter that all Dalits in Hyderabad being tortured should leave the Nizam's state and go to Maharashtra. But they should not change their religion.