Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath lashed out at Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav in the State Assembly on Saturday after the Opposition leader questioned the government over the killing of a witness of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal.
Mr. Yadav, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, questioned the murder of Umesh Pal, a prime witness in the 2005 murder case, in Prayagraj on Friday evening and alleged that such incidents indicates the deteriorating law and order in the State. The SP leader also said that the Chief Minister should be ashamed of such incidents.
Reply on this, Mr. Adityanath said, “You (Mr. Yadav) should be ashamed for failing to respect your father.” Speaking on the incident during his speech on Governor Anandiben Patel’s address, the Chief Minister alleged criminals involved in such acts were groomed by the SP. “Our government is working on the basis of a zero-tolerance policy. But the criminals who are involved in the incident (Prayagraj), were not nurtured by the SP? Was he not made a parliamentarian by the party?,” asked the CM. He also said that his government will eliminate all the criminals.
He also spoke about the recent controversy over Ramcharitmanas and asked what would have been the situation if religious scriptures of other religion were insulted. “A few people tried to tear Ramcharitmanas, I want to ask what would have been the situation, if such issues happened with other religion? Does it mean whoever wants to insult Hindus, can do it?,” asked Mr. Adityanath.
Recently, SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya had alleged that certain parts of the Ramcharitmanas written by Tulsidas ‘insults’ women, backwards, tribals and Dalits and demanded for banning those portions which led to major uproar in Uttar Pradesh while some other groups tearing the book
The Chief Minister also took potshots at senior SP leader and Jaswantnagar MLA Shivpal Singh Yadav for going with the party despite being continuously insulted. “Whenever I see you (Shivpal), I reminded of the scene from the Mahabharata. You are humiliated and the party does not take advantage of your expertise. You deserve our respect, but must also retain your own self-respect,” said Mr. Adityanath. The Jaswantnagar MLA shared a love-hate relationship with his party president since 2016.
Mr. Adityanath called the recently concluded State’s Global Investors Summit (GIS)-2023 as a classic example of teamwork and highlighted how the state reached global economic centres. “On the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, voters of Uttar Pradesh gave us decisive verdict in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2022. The team Uttar Pradesh did road shows in the 21 cities of 16 countries and in nine cities of India. Massive investment of 33.52 lakh crore come to the state, which proves our political credibility,” added Mr. Adityanath.
He asked the SP about works done in their tenure and talked about Muzaffarnagar riots and recruitment scam which took place in the Opposition party’s regime. “The Muzaffarnagar riots, burning the journalist alive and the recruitment scam were among many ‘games’ played in Uttar Pradesh during your tenure,” he said.
