Amarinder slams Yogi’s ‘inflammatory’ tweet over naming Malerkotla a dist
CHANDIGARH/ LUCKNOW: Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday slammed his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath over his “inflammatory” tweet on the declaration of Malerkotla as the 23rd district of Punjab, terming it an attempt to incite communal hatred in the peaceful state as a part of the BJP’s divisive policies.
In a Tweet in Hindi on Saturday, Adityanath said: “Any differentiation in the name of any religion or creed is opposed to the basic principles of the Constitution. At this time, formation of Malerkotla (as a district) is an example of divisive policy of the Congress.”
The UP chief minister’s tweet came a day after Amarinder announced the only Muslim majority town in Punjab to be the state’s 23rd district on the occasion of Eid.
Contrasting the communal harmony in Punjab with the “divisiveness” being promoted by the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, Amarinnder asked the former to stay out of his state’s affairs as they are in much better shape than those in UP.
“What does he (Yogi Adityanath) know of Punjab’s ethos or the history of Malerkotla, whose relationship with Sikhism and its Gurus was known to every Punjabi? And what does he understand of the Constitution, which is being brazenly trampled every day by his own government in UP?” asked Amarinder.
Mocking the UP chief minister’s comment, Amarinder said given the Yogi’s government and the BJP’s track record of spreading “communal hate”, such a remark was utterly ridiculous, apart from being totally unwarranted and uncalled for. The whole world knows of the communally divisive policies of the BJP, and particularly the Yogi Adityanath government in UP, said Amarinder.
Pointing to the “spate of changes in names” of various UP cities, including Mughal Sarai to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Nagar, Allahabad as Prayagraj and Faizabad as Ayodhya, he dubbed it an “attempt by the Yogi government to rewrite history”. Citing media reports, Amarinder recalled that UP was the first state in the country to approve “love jihad” laws, and Yogi Adityanath’s open hatred for Taj Mahal (which he sees as a legacy of the Mughals) has been the subject matter of criticism in international press.
In fact, the UP chief minister is reportedly the founder of Hindu Yuva Vahini, an organisation that was responsible for starting cow vigilantism, which led to lynching of Muslims in his own state, the Punjab CM said.
Meanwhile, Sangrur BJP chief Randeep Deol also opposed carving out of Malerkotla district out of Sangrur. “With this announcement, the government has made Sangrur a small district. This is against the Constitution,” he said.