Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's clarion call for unity among Hindus with the slogan 'Katenge to Batenge' has saprked a divide with the Maha Yuti Alliance in Maharashtra.
Nationalist Congress Party Chief and Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar has publically spoken against this slogan while his compatriot Devendr Fadnavis has defended it.
Fadnavis said that it will take time for Ajit Pawar to understand the public's mood as had stayed with anti-Hindu idealogies for a long time.
"For decades, Ajit Pawar has stayed with such ideologies which are secular and anti-Hindu. There is no real secularism amongst those who call themselves as secularists. He has stayed with people for whom opposing Hindutva is secularism. There is no real secularism among those who call themselves secular," Fadnavis told ANI.
"It will take some time for him to understand the mood of the public. These people either did not understand the sentiments of the public or did not understand the statement or they probably wanted to say something else," he added.
Fadnavis said that there was nothing wrong with the slogan given by Yogi Adityanath and stated that it had been the history of the country.
"I don't see anything wrong in Yogi ji's slogans. Look at the history of this country. Jab Jab bate hai tab gulam bane hai. Whenever this country was divided into castes, states, divided into communities society we became slaves. The country was also divided, and so were the people. That's why if we divide, we will be cut. This is the history of this country," Fadnavis said in an interview with ANI.
"And I don't understand that if someone says don't divide, then what is the point of objecting to this?" he added.
Ajit Pawar had said the people of Maharashtra do not appreciate remarks like "batenge to katenge".
"Maharashtra belongs to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj and Mahatma Phule. You do not compare Maharashtra with other states, Maharashtra's people do not like this," Pawar told reporters in Pune when asked about Adityanath's remarks.
The slogan has also been widely condemned by the opposition leaders, claiming communal overtones in it.
