BJP playing with Constitution: Shivpal

PRAYAGRAJ: Amid an outcry over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed NRC, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Singh Yadav on Sunday accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of playing with the Indian Constitution even at the risk of putting the entire country in danger.

Speaking to media persons at the Circuit House here, Yadav alleged that the CAA, updating of the National Population Register in a new format and proposed

NRC could disturb peace and unity of the nation to a large extent.

He said the BJP, instead of winning trust of Muslims and allaying their apprehensions, was working in a manner that could only alienate them further, harming the national interest. Yadav was in the city to attend a religious ceremony.

“In the name of infiltrators, members of a particular community are being targeted, a wrong exercise completely. Our party is opposing the CAA and will continue to oppose it. We plan to hold a big public meeting against this new law soon,” he said.

Coming down heavily on the BJP governments, Yadav alleged that the BJP rule had witnessed crime, corruption and that the unemployment was rising alarmingly in the state as well as in the country.

“It is to deviate attention of the people from these important issues that the BJP is trying new tactics one after the other,” he alleged. Yadav said before enacting this new law (CAA), the government should have conducted a survey and sought public opinion. “People find the government functioning in a dictatorial manner. The country is burning only due to the government’s approach towards various issues,” he remarked while sharpening his attack on BJP.

To a query on the possibility of a new alliance in the state, the former UP cabinet minister said his party would enter into an alliance with any other party only if it had respect and honour for the party and its workers. He, however, refrained from answering any questions regarding the Samajwadi Party.

Yadav was accompanied by his party’s state unit president Sundarlal Lodhi.