‘They want to trigger riots again’: Yogi slams Shivpal Yadav over Azam-would-be-home minister remark

Without naming Yadav, the CM, addressing an event on Partition in Lucknow, said, “The Samajwadi Party is standing behind a person (Azam Khan) who built a university (Jauhar University at Rampur) after an individual (Mohammad Ali Jauhar) responsible for India’s Partition and who opposed the country’s Independence. They are saying if their party comes to power, they will make him (Azam) the home minister.”

“Just look at their thinking. This means they want to trigger riots again,” he added at the programme titled ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’ organised on the eve of Independence Day.

The Chief Minister said that it was important to understand why the circumstances leading to Partition arose, who were responsible for it, how much punishment the perpetrators received and how long the country would continue to pay the price for the tragedy.

Referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he said the Opposition parties spread confusion across the country regarding the provisions of the law which provided granting citizenship to people belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious persecution.

“There was no provision in it to take away anyone’s land or property. Despite this, attempts were made to organise protests and violence in several parts of the country against the law,” he said.

Targeting the Congress and SP, Adityanath alleged that vested interests and vote-bank politics were behind the opposition to the citizenship law. “If the government wants to grant citizenship to a displaced Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi and help them settle, why should anyone have a problem with it?”

Referring to the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, he said that political parties should also have expressed their response to the incidents there. The CM alleged that some parties avoid speaking on such matters because of vote-bank politics.

Raising the issue of rehabilitation of displaced families after Partition, Adityanath said decades after the tragedy, many families continued to struggle for citizenship and permanent identity. “In Uttar Pradesh, work was undertaken to rectify the documents of such families and provide them with land-related papers. If anti-India forces are trying to use social media and other platforms to create anarchy in society, then citizens also have a responsibility to put facts before people and create awareness,” he said.

Blaming the Congress for Partition, the CM said it was the party’s responsibility at that time to first provide citizenship to the displaced people and make land available to them through leases.

“Instead, the Congress was busy protecting enemy property and distributing it among its own people. These people were using the same property as a basis for looting it and converting it into their personal property. This property should have been distributed among the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains who came to India from Pakistan,” he further said.