British too described patriots as traitors, says SP leader

LUCKNOW : After chief minister Yogi Adityanath stated that raising ‘azaadi’ slogans during anti CAA protests would amount to treason, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gobind Chaudhary on Thursday said, “Even the British had described patriots as traitors and terrorists.”

“Just like British, the countdown for the exit of these people has begun,” said Chaudhary, without naming anyone.

In a written statement, Chaudhary, who is also the leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha, said: “Don’t feel bad that the descendants of those people who had sided with the British are calling protestors (against Citizen Amendment Act) traitors for shouting the slogan ‘azaadi, azaadi’. The British too had called patriots traitors. Their countdown has begun. ”Chaudhary said that socialists always chose the path of struggle and history was witness to it.

He said: “When the country attained freedom and people were running after power, then the socialist leader chose to struggle. During the Emergency, when many people and the so-called great organisation (reference was to RSS) wrote the letter of support to Indira Gandhi, the socialists who were fighting for the freedom of expression spent time behind bars. ”Chaudhary said freedom was the birthright of every citizen of India.

Speaking at a rally in Kanpur, Adityanath had said on Wednesday, “In democracy, staging a peaceful protest is everyone’s right. One can give memorandums and protest peacefully. But I want to reiterate that if anyone resorts to violence, we would recover damages from them. And also, I would like to state that raising ‘azaadi’ slogans that were raised in Kashmir, would come under treason and attract strict punishment. This won’t be tolerated.”