Oppn parties hit out, BJP leader backs Meerut SP’s remark

An image grab from the video in which SP Akhilesh N Singh is heard saying: “Khaoge yahan ka, gaoge kahin aur ka”

EVEN AS the Congress and SP targeted the state government over the Meerut SP’s Pakistan remark on Friday, BJP state spokesperson and state information adviser Shalabh Mani Tripathi on Saturday praised the officer, Akhilesh N Singh, who is seen asking local residents to tell those protesting against the new citizenship law to “go to Pakistan” in a video that went viral.

Slamming the state BJP government, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was in Lucknow on Saturday, tweeted, “The Constitution of India does not allow to use such language against any citizen of the country and you are an officer holding a significant post and thus your responsibility is even more. The BJP has spread such communal venom in the institutions that today officers do not even care about the oath of the constitution.”

SP spokesperson Rajendra Choudhary said, “This kind of behaviour is against rules for government officials. It is against the democratic rights of the people.”

In a tweet, Tripathi wrote, “I salute Meerut City SP Akhilesh Narayan Singh for giving a befitting reply to rioters…”