BJP, SP resort to titfortat
KANPUR : Tit-for-tat sweater politics is playing out between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh this winter over the delay in the government distributing pullovers to 1.54 crore students of state-run primary and upper primary schools (up to class 8).
First, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav criticised the government on issue. Then, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya mocked him, saying sweaters were being sent to Akhilesh’s children.
Now, Samajwadi Party leaders in Banda district of UP said on Saturday they sent two new sweaters by courier to Maurya’s father who they claimed was ailing. They said the sweaters will reach him with a ‘get well soon’ card in Kaushambi, the deputy chief minister’s home district near Allahabad.
Akhilesh Yadav had tweeted in Hindi on December 26. “Sarkar bar bar sweater ke tender cancel kar rahi hai aur school ke bachche sarkar ki taraf se diye janewali sweater ka intezar. Kahin aisa no ho ki idhar bachche jhuthi ummidon ki aag tapte rah jaen aur udhar tender ki prakriya puri hote hote May-June aa jaye. (The government is regularly cancelling the tender with regard to sweaters and schoolchildren are waiting for them. It should not happen that the children suffer in false hope and the tender process is completed in May-June (peak of summer season).”
In response, Maurya said in Kaushambi on Wednesday, “We have sent sweaters to Akhilesh Yadav’s children. The poor children of our state will be shortly given pullovers as promised.”
Amir Khan Manni, district president of the SP youth wing, the party’s district president Shamim Bandvi and other leaders reached the Banda post office on Saturday and couriered the sweaters to the deputy CM’s father. When asked, Manni said the SP leaders learnt about the illness of Maurya’s father from a Facebook post.
“The deputy CM is not able to safeguard his father from biting cold. Think of the children. How will they fight the cold with a false promise?” Manni said.
Amitabh Bajpai, SP MLA from Arya Nagar in Kanpur, is said to be behind the move. “He (Maurya) should work on fulfilling the promises rather than dragging family members (of political rivals) into a political discourse,” Bajpai told HT.
The BJP government has been under severe criticism for failing to give the sweaters in peak of winters.
The ruling party has sought to counter the opposition barbs. State’s basic education minister Anupama Jaiswal has already announced she will not put on sweaters till all students in government-run schools get theirs.
She said a technical glitch was responsible for the delay, but it was being taken care of. The government, she said, had distributed socks and shoes to all the primary school students as promised.
Earlier, the government failed to attract enough tenders for sweaters, and the price quoted by those who had applied was above Rs 200 per piece, the upper limit fixed by the government.
Additional chief secretary, Raj Pratap Singh, on January 3 directed all district magistrates to ask school management committees (SMC) to purchase and distribute sweaters to students within 30 days from the date of issuance of the order.
The state government has now asked the school management committees to procure the maroon sweaters. Distribution has begun in some schools.
The state government has allocated ₹390 crore for purchasing sweaters for the 1.54 core students studying in government schools of UP.
The colour of the sweater will be maroon.