CPI(M) installs, then removes Benazir Bhutto hoarding in Thiruvananthapuram as BJP rakes up ‘1,000-year war’ vow

The red-coloured square with a giant hoarding carrying an image of Benazir Bhutto was installed just opposite the city’s famous martyrs’ column and adjacent to the British-era market Connemara.

The inscriptions on the square laud Bhutto as the first woman prime minister of Pakistan who won honorary doctorates from nine universities, including Harvard. “Nothing strange or unusual about the hoarding carrying Benazir’s image.

The hoarding was eventually removed from the location on the intervening night of 5 and 6 January.

The AIDWA conference

Across Kerala, the AIDWA has erected numerous portraits of significant women, and Bhutto is just one among them.

“We strongly objected to her anti-India remarks and how she promoted insurgency targeting India. This is a different context, and the approach is also different,” explained AIDWA vice-president TN Seema.

At the conference, the AIDWA is organising a special session to recall the contributions of legendary Indian women, including Phulora Mondal (West Bengal), Sheela Butana (Haryana), Samyukta Shetty (Odisha), Shakuntala (Haryana), and Revathi (Tamil Nadu) by categorising them as “Symbols of Resistance”.

There are no such attempts to offer tributes to Bhutto, explained Seema.

The topics to be discussed at the conference include the Freedom Struggle and Women’s Movement, the National Education Policy and its Impact on Women, Climate Change and Women, Rights of the Girl Child, Employment and Women, and Women’s Rights and the Question of Unity.

The conference is expected to discuss the grave and contemporary issues faced by Indian women, said Seema.

The conference begins on Friday, 6 January, with noted danseuse Mallika Sarabhai inaugurating it.

Also read: Hindi imposition will divide the people of India, says Pinarayi Vijayan

BJP riled up

Twitter handles linked to the BJP created a sensation over the use of the image of Benazir as part of the conference after the party’s Kerala spokesperson Sandeep Vachaspati condemned the CPI(M) and the AIDWA.

“The photograph of Former PM of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, who declared 1000 years of war against India, now adorns the hoarding that was erected in connection with the national conference of @cpimspeak women association. Beware of the traitors and the threat within, [sic]” Vachaspati tweeted.

The photograph of Former PM of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, who declared 1000 years of war against India, now adorns the hording that was erected in connection with the national conference of @cpimspeak women association. Beware of the traitors and the threat within. @CPIMKerala pic.twitter.com/vkDhXKk7t2

— Sandeep Vachaspathi (മോദിയുടെ കുടുംബം) (@rsandeepbjp) January 5, 2023

In 1965, Benazir’s father and then Pakistan foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in a speech at the UN Security Council, said his country would wage a war for 1,000 years against India. He added that it would be a war of defence.

“Irrespective of our size and resources, we shall fight to the end,” he said.

In 1990, after becoming prime minister, Benazir repeated her father’s words to counter the impression at the time that she was pro-Indian.

“The AIDWA must explain why it used the image of Benazir at its conference, which was supposed to discuss national unity. The declaration of a 1,000-year war against India is still hanging as a threat against us, and the Communists must learn what patriotism is,” said Vachaspati when contacted by South First.

“What is the rationale of the AIDWA projecting  Benazir as a woman who received doctorates from nine universities, including Harvard? Many women in India hold more degrees, and they are not just conferred ones. How shall we recognise a person who instigated Kashmiri Muslims to take up arms and wage a Jihad against India?” he asked.

Though only one hoarding with an image of Benazir was installed, right-wing social media handles said several big hoardings with the photo of the former Pakistan prime minister had been put up for the AIDWA conference.

Responding to the controversy, BJP state president K Surendran recalled that Kashmir witnessed a surge in cross-border terrorism in the 1990s when Benazir Bhutto delivered an inflammatory speech exhorting for ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Hindus.

The BJP state unit has also urged Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to remove the hoarding immediately to avoid sending a wrong message to people across the nation.

Also read: Love jihad in Kerala: Some Christians crying wolf to appease the BJP?