Those who abused Lord Ram now visiting Ayodhya: Yogi
CM Yogi Adityanath said opposition parties are exploiting Lord Ram for vote-bank gains
LUCKNOW : Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday took a veiled swipe at his Delhi counterpart and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of exploiting Lord Ram for vote-bank gains.
Without taking names, he said: “Earlier, they abused Lord Ram. Now, with the elections approaching, they are coming to Ayodhya to pay obeisance to the deity after realising that they will not be able to sail through in the upcoming elections,” he said.
CM’S ATTACK ON THE OPPOSITION CAME AT A SOCIAL JUSTICE MEETING COMPRISING MEMBERS OF LODH, THE OTHER BACKWARD CASTE (OBC) COMMUNITY
LUCKNOW : Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday took a veiled swipe at his Delhi counterpart and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of exploiting Lord Ram for vote-bank gains.
Without taking names, he said: “Earlier, they abused Lord Ram. Now, with the elections approaching, they are coming to Ayodhya to pay obeisance to the deity after realising that they will not be able to sail through in the upcoming elections. This is good. At least they have accepted the existence and importance of Ram,” said Adityanath.
“But let us not forget that there was no opposition leader in the country who didn’t criticize babuji (referring to the then chief minister Kalyan Singh) on December 6, 1992,” he added.
The attack was timed with Kejriwal’s two-day Ayodhya visit during which he promised that the Delhi government would arrange for free Ayodhya
visits for the masses. AAP is set to contest the 2022 UP polls early next year.
Adityanath also targeted other opposition parties. “While the opposition parties vied over hosting iftaar, during Hindu festivals curfews forced by riots spoiled the show for the majority community,” he said.
His attack on the opposition came at a social justice meeting comprising members of Lodh, the Other Backward Caste (OBC) community, to which former chief minister Kalyan Singh belonged.
The chief minister also accused his Delhi counterpart of abandoning UP’s migrants, forcing them out of Delhi during the Covid-induced lockdown.
“There is someone from Delhi who had forced people of UP out of the National Capital during the lockdown. Now, he is announcing freebies. Someone who couldn’t handle UP people in Delhi is positioning himself as one who could handle all of UP,” said Yogi Adityanath.
Kalyan Singh, who belonged to the Lodh sub-caste of OBCs, was the chief minister of UP when the Babri mosque was razed by kar sevaks in December, 1992.
He always maintained that he refused to give permission to the security forces to fire at kar sevaks who had gathered at Ayodhya, a point Adityanath has been raising in his speeches at BJP’s caste meets.
On October 30, 1990, the police had opened fire at kar sewaks who gathered in Ayodhya on the call given by VHP, RSS and the BJP when the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government was in power.
“Had there been a BJP government in UP in 1990, no power on earth would have dared to fire at kar sevaks,” Adityanath has been stating repeatedly in his speeches.
Adityanath also targeted the main opposition Samajwadi Party for tweaking its publicity tagline ‘main aa raha hoon (I am coming)’.
“This simply means that lawlessness, anarchy, mayhem, goonda raj among other things is returning. That is why one should not vote for such parties,” he said.