'Slogans of Unity': Devendra Fadnavis defends 'batenge to katenge' and 'ek hain to safe hain'

Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis took the blame for the BJP's performance in the Lok Sabha elections. (File Photo: PTI)

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Maharashtra's deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that slogans like Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath's 'batenge to katenge' or Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'ek hain to safe hain' are slogans of unity and there is nothing wrong with them.

"In politics when someone creates a narrative then it must be countered. We saw that in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress indulged in vote jihad...Fatwas were issued by maulvis and along with that, Congress created divisions along caste lines. That means on the one hand, they polarised Muslims, and on the other, divided Hindus. Historically whenever there was a division of society, the country was divided and society suffered," he told The Indian Express, justifying the need to counter false narratives.

The remarks by Fadnavis came amid Opposition's criticism that the BJP was creating hatred and divisions in society through the use of these slogans during the Assembly elections.

"Have you seen any Hindu religious leaders issuing fatwas that if Hindus do not vote for the BJP then it would be dishonesty towards God? Issuing fatwas is an issue as it is a political fatwa and creates communal divide. We will have to react to that narrative," he further said.

Fadnavis also took the blame for the BJP's poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections where the Mahayuti could only win 17 of the 48 seats while the MVA clinched 30, and an independent candidate secured one.

In the Mahayuti alliance, BJP won 9 out of 28 contested seats, while chief minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction secured 7 out of 15, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP won just 1 out of the 4 seats it contested.

Fadnavis said that as the leader of the party, he failed to counter the Opposition’s “anarchist” and “ultra-leftist” narrative. "I completely admit that during the Lok Sabha elections, we failed miserably to set a counter narrative and we have to be blamed for that. At least in Maharashtra, I failed and we were also over confident," he said.

Fadnavis further said that the BJP was not up against parties in the Lok Sabha elections but fighting forces. "Bharat Jodo was a force, formed by people with anarchist and ultra-leftist mentalities. This force created a hyperlocal narrative, and when we realised that they were creating a narrative against us, we had no capacity, capability and apparatus to counter it. We could not do anything about it. But now we are completely ready and we have the capacity. We have nullified that narrative and fed the real narrative so now we don’t have anything to worry about."

Fadnavis said that Rahul Gandhi's narrative that the Constitution will change and reservation will go is finished. He said that the BJP also reached out to organisations within its ideological umbrella and urged them to respond to the "anarchist forces".

"Today, they have helped us and because of their help, they have countered the Bharat Jodo narrative of the anarchist forces. It started immediately after the Lok Sabha results in June. We kept meeting with them but this time we made a special appeal to the nationalist forces," Fadnavis said without naming the RSS.