NEW DELHI: Taking on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s claim that Indians have shared “the same DNA for 40,000 years,” Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday turned the remark into a political weapon. Speaking at a rally in Bihar alongside Rahul Gandhi‘s Voter Adhikar Yatra, Akhilesh mocked the statement with a twist on the BJP‘s recent electoral losses in Uttar Pradesh and declared, “after Awadh, now Magadh.”The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar on the last day of its third leg and addressed a rally in Ara.
“We have been saying that our fight for social justice is 5,000 years old. But only recently we got to learn that it dates back to 40,000 years,” Akhilesh said, with a hint of sarcasm.“So, we must pull up our socks. We speak about 5,000 years of social inequality. But they (BJP-RSS) assert that the existing order is 40,000 years old. In the last year’s Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was beaten in Awadh (UP). It is now time to drive them out from Magadh (Bihar),” he added.SP supremo also referred to “the chariot (rath) having been stopped in Bihar,” recalling the 1990 arrest of BJP veteran LK Advani in Samastipur during his Ram Rath Yatra. The episode, while halting the campaign, also triggered a political rivalry between RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav, the SP founder.This time, however, Akhilesh extended full support to Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav. “We will cooperate fully with Tejashwi Yadav in the upcoming assembly polls. May he form the next government and take Bihar on the path to progress,” he said.“Tejashwi has been promising jobs to Bihar’s youth, which would put an end to forced migration. Let him win the assembly polls and it would be the turn of the BJP to migrate from the state,” the SP leader said.Targeting the Modi government, Akhilesh alleged that the Centre was “trying to intimidate us” but was itself “getting scared of (US President Donald) Trump” after the US imposed steep tariffs.“It seems the tariffs have been slapped on the mouths of the BJP as well,” he quipped, further accusing the government of betraying farmers. “They had promised to double the income of farmers. But, in reality, the farmers of the country have been ruined.”He also alleged that the Election Commission was “manipulating (jugaad) elections in favour of the ruling BJP” and urged INDIA bloc workers to safeguard voter rights. “All workers of our INDIA bloc shall ensure that names of voters do not remain wrongfully deleted from the electoral rolls. During the polls, they would also ensure that people are able to cast their votes without fear or intimidation.”Earlier this week, RSS chief Bhagwat had made DNA remark at 100 Years Journey of RSS: New Horizons in New Delhi. “DNA of people living in India for the past 40,000 years is one. Living in harmony is our culture,” he said, while stressing, “We do not believe uniformity is necessary for unity, there is unity in diversity too. Diversity is a product of unity.”
