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Journalism of Courage
IN AN interaction with a select few people and party workers here after a door-to-door campaign Saturday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said those in power in Uttar Pradesh in 2012 (Samajwadi Party) were trying to create a “Kashmir-like” situation in the state, by “engineering an exodus in Kairana”.
The BJP government had put a stop to that, he said, not only in UP but also Kashmir, after the abrogation of Article 370. “UP is riding a crest of development and prosperity,” he said.
The BJP had claimed at the time that extortion by gangsters (mostly Muslim) had forced Hindu families to flee Kairana. A report by The Indian Express had found discrepancies in this claim.
Meeting voters in the area that goes to polls in the first phase, February 10, Adityanath also accused previous state governments of prioritising withdrawal of cases against terrorists. The BJP government, in contrast, had shut down illegal abattoirs. “This is the difference between the two parties,” he told a gathering in Bulandshahr.
The CM said those who had indulged in “arson” and “looting” during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act also knew that things had changed. “They know that under BJP rule, their posters will be pasted on crossings of their towns… We are not ready to make any compromise with the security of the people and the prosperity of the state.”
Adityanath said earlier ruling parties also believed in lining the pockets of their own family members. “For me, the 25 crore people here are my family.”
After visiting Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Combined Hospital in Aligarh and inspecting facilities there, Adityanath told the media that it was due to the combined efforts of the BJP government at the state and Centre that UP had beaten Covid. “We are in a position to declare that the third wave is not as dangerous as the first two ones were… We are determined to safeguard lives and livelihood against the virus.”
