Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said in Bulandshahr that he has kept his promise of improving law and order situation in the state, and no one will now will dare disrespect “our sisters and daughters of western Uttar Pradesh”.
Neither will there be a repeat of the exodus seen in Kairana and Kandhla following the riots, nor will youths such as Sachin and Gaurav have to “sacrifice themselves”, he said.
Sachin and Gaurav’s murders in August 2013 had allegedly sparked the riots in Muzaffarnagar.
Addressing the public, Adityanath was talking of the poll agenda in Bulandshahr, Amroha, and Tundla, among the seats going to bypolls on November 3.
Furthermore, Adityanath slammed the opposition party for its outreach to the family of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who, along with three Campus Front of India (CFI) members, was arrested by UP police on way to meet the Hathras victim’s family and has been booked under UAPA. Kappan’s wife had met Rahul on Wednesday to hand over a memorandum seeking justice for her husband.
Adityanath said: “You must have seen that yesterday, a former Congress chief went to meet those associated with PFI, which has been consistent with its role in flaring tension. The Congress is sympathetic towards such people. Even the Samajwadi Party and other parties are sympathetic towards such people – these people want to divide the country on the basis of language, caste and religion, while we believe in sabka sath sabka vikas.”
The PFI is accused of funding some protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act earlier this year. The state police had previously sought a ban on the organisation. The CFI is the students’ front of PFI.
Campaigning for Usha Sirohi, wife of Virendra Singh Sirohi, whose death necessitated the by-election to Bulandshahr Sadar seat, Adityanath said: “Main apse vayeda karta hoon ki paschami UP mein maa-behnon ki izzat ke saath khilwadh karne ki jurrat koi nahi kar payega…. Koi Kairana aur Kandhla (in Shamli district) ki ghatna karne ka dussahas nahi kar payega. Koi Sachin aur koi Gaurav fir se apne-aap ko balidan karne ki awashyakta nahi mehsus hogi (I promise you that in west UP no one would dare disrespect our sisters and daughters; no one would dare repeat the exodus of Kairana and Kandhla, nor would there be a need for the likes of Gaurav and Sachin to sacrifice themselves).”
Adityanath pointed out that he had made all these promises before the Assembly elections in 2017 and claimed that these promises have been kept.
Alleging that goons operated under the patronage of previous governments in the state, he said those same people are today running away, “begging for their lives”. He said properties owned by the mafia are being confiscated across the state today.
Later, in Amroha, he said, “Apraadhi ya toh jail ke andar hai ya to Ram naam satya ki yatra mein nikal gaya hai (criminals are now either in jail or have died).”
Stating that the BJP government has also fulfilled the promise of starting work on the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Adityanath said, “In 2019 (Lok Sabha) polls, people said, ‘Ram Lalla aayenge mandir wahin banayenge lekin tareekh nahi batayenge (Ram Lalla will come, will build the temple in Ayodhya but will not tell specific dates)’. Now we have told you the date. On August 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began work on the Ram Mandir. Had there been no coronavirus I would have invited people from each village to Ayodhya (for bhoomi pujan).”
Adityanath also recalled farmers’ leader Chaudhary Charan Singh – not just at the rally in Bulandhshahr but also at the public meeting in Amroha’s Naugawan Sadat. In a setback to the Samajwadi Party, its known Jat face in the region, veteran leader Kiran Pal Singh, joined BJP in the presence of the Chief Minister in Bulandshahr.
Invoking erstwhile Maharaja Mahendra Pratap Singh, Adityanath said that Singh gave land to construct the Aligarh Muslim University but there is “not a single stone in his name there”. Maintaining that students of SC and ST categories had faced problem in enrolment at AMU, the Chief Minister said his government has thus decided to open a university in Aligarh in the name of Mahendra Pratap Singh.
He said properties belonging to criminals and the mafia are being bulldozed in the state now, and asked the crowd whether photographs of such people should be displayed at crossings, and whether recovery should be made from rioters for destroying public property. The crowd roared back in the affirmative.
Adityanath said that earlier kaanwar yatras were not allowed in the state, as authorities said it may lead to unrest, but his government not just started the yatra but also ensured that flowers are showered on them.
In Tundla, Adityanath said that those who had imprisoned BJP workers in fake cases are today behind the bars due to their own acts. He cited works such as the film city near Bulandshahr, Women’s Degree College in Tundla, reviving of sugar mills, among others, and said that his government is working to turn Uttar Pradesh into “Uttam Pradesh”.