All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday questioned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for using ‘Abba Jaan’ term and said that he should have said ‘Pita ji’ instead. 

Commenting on the ‘Abba Jaan’ remark of Adityanath, Owaisi called it ‘dog-whistle politics’.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister stoked a huge controversy with his remark that those who talk of ‘abba jaan’ are the ones who ate up the ration meant for the poor.

The comments were seen as an apparent attack against the Muslim community and the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Addressing a programme in Kushinagar on September 12, Adityanath had said, “Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, there is no place for appeasement politics. Before 2017, was everyone able to get ration? Earlier only those who used to say ‘abba jaan’ were digesting the ration.”

“Because then (before 2017), people who are called ‘abba jaan’ used to digest the rations. The rations of Kushinagar used to go to Nepal and Bangladesh. Today, if anybody tries to swallow the rations meant for poor people, he will land in jail,” the Uttar Pradesh CM had said in Kushinagar.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, Owaisi and several other opposition leaders criticised Yogi Adityanath for his ‘Abba Jaan’ remarks.

“Even after over four years, this government is changing names and colours, claiming the work done by the SP government as its own. As they know that their government is on its way out, the language of its head has changed,” Yadav said.

Adityanath defended his remark saying that is “Abba Jaan” an “unparliamentary word”. 

“I have not taken any names. They want Muslim votes, why should they shun it? Is it an unparliamentary word? It is not. No one should have any problem with it,” the Uttar Pradesh CM asserted.