'BJP Exploits Financially Vulnerable Artistes For Political Gain': Akhilesh Yadav

The Samajwadi Party president alleged that the BJP was scared of artistic expression as it challenges convention and could strengthen growing anti-establishment sentiment.

The Wire Staff

The Samajwadi Party president alleged that the BJP was scared of artistic expression as it challenges convention and could strengthen growing anti-establishment sentiment.

bjp exploits financially vulnerable artistes for political gain akhilesh yadav

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav presenting artistes with monetary rewards, Photo: X/yadavakhilesh.

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday (August 2) said the Bharatiya Janata Party was taking advantage of artistes who are financially vulnerable and exploiting their talents for political optics.

Yadav appears to have been referring to a recent incident wherein a performer dressed as Hindu deity Hanuman was reportedly made to dance before BJP national president Nitin Nabin's chariot during his recent visit to Lucknow. Yadav claimed artistes accept such roles out of financial compulsion rather than political alignment, reported The Hindu.

A video posted on X on Sunday showed Yadav presenting Rs 51,000 each to two Ramlila artistes who play Lord Ram and Hanuman. He alleged that the BJP is inherently uncomfortable with creativity as artistic expression could reinforce "growing anti-establishment sentiment" by challenging convention. He added that the party was trying to keep artistes, writers and journalists, who can potentially generate dissent, off public platforms.

"Dear artistes and creators, the way the Bharatiya Janata Party misused the talent of a helpless and vulnerable artiste to further its own political interests is highly condemnable…Negative BJP members have always been opposed to creativity as it forges a new path against conventions and orthodoxies, which the BJP’s conservative thinking does not like at all since they fear the expression of creativity will further strengthen the ‘anti-establishment wave’…Artistry refines humanity. Art promotes tolerance, harmony, camaraderie, and equality, which is why those who engage in negative divisive politics are opposed to artistes," he said.

सकारात्मकता ही सृजनात्मकता का सम्मान करती है।
हम आएंगे, कलाकारों का मान-सम्मान वापस लाएंगे। pic.twitter.com/xI92trvLh1
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 2, 2026

Yadav claimed that if the SP returns to power, it would revive its earlier practice of honouring artistes through awards like the Yash Bharti Samman and provide them with a monthly stipend of Rs 1 lakh for life.

He further said that over 26,000 government primary schools in Uttar Pradesh have been shut down since the BJP took office in 2017, significantly dropping from the 1,13,938 government primary schools that the state had until March 2017. He attributed this move to an attempt to deny education to children from marginalised and disadvantaged communities, under the "PDA (pichhda or backward class, Dalit and alpsankhyak or minority) framework."

This article went live on August third, two thousand twenty six, at six minutes past twelve at noon.

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