Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday, 14 August claimed that India's 1947 Partition would never have occurred had someone like Narendra Modi been Prime Minister at the time, delivering the remarks at an event in Lucknow to mark the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day. The statement drew immediate political attention, with Adityanath using the occasion to mount a sharp attack on the Indian National Congress.

What Adityanath Said

Addressing the gathering, Adityanath invoked Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, arguing that a leader of his stature in the Prime Minister's chair in 1947 would have preserved India's territorial unity. 'Had a person like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel been the Prime Minister in 1947, no one would have fragmented India's unity,' he said.

He went further, stating: 'Had someone like Narendra Modi been the Prime Minister in 1947, the country would not have been partitioned.' Adityanath described the Partition of 1947 as 'one of the darkest chapters in the history of world humanity,' pointing to the forced division of Punjab and Bengal as a 'shameful act' carried out by a Congress leadership he accused of being 'excessively eager for power.'

Broadside Against Congress

Adityanath alleged that the Congress's 'hunger for power' directly caused the Partition and the mass violence that followed. 'Those people who didn't speak at that time, as they were only focused on gaining power, are doing the same thing today as well,' he said, drawing a line from the events of 1947 to present-day opposition politics.

He also accused the Congress of remaining silent on alleged atrocities against Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, claiming the party feared alienating its vote bank. 'For them, the massacre of Dalit Hindus doesn't matter, only their vote bank matters,' he said. 'They have made power as their personal property and as their family heritage and will subsequently betray the country as in the past.'

CAA and the Opposition

Adityanath extended his criticism to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), arguing that opposition to the legislation by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) was unjustified and politically motivated. 'Nowhere does the Act say that the lands of the Muslims, Congress or the Samajwadi Party would be taken away, still demonstrations against it were carried out across the country,' he said.

He suggested that had the Samajwadi Party been in power in Uttar Pradesh during the CAA protests, the state would not have recovered from the resulting unrest. He held both the Congress and the SP responsible for stoking divisions he linked rhetorically to the legacy of Partition.

Broader Context

The Partition Horrors Remembrance Day is observed on 14 August every year, a date designated by the Centre in 2021 to commemorate the suffering of millions displaced or killed during the 1947 Partition. Adityanath's remarks come days before Independence Day and amid continued political friction over the CAA and the situation of minorities in Bangladesh. He added that Indians continue to 'pay the price' for Partition in the form of terrorism and Naxalism.

With assembly elections on the horizon in several states, the address underscores the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) sustained effort to frame Partition as a Congress-era failure with contemporary political consequences.