Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday took a swipe at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for sharing a dais with his junior colleague Ajay Mishra, under a cloud over the recent violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in which eight people were killed.
In a post on Twitter, Mr. Yadav also tagged a photograph of the two ministers during a programme of Uttar Pradesh's ruling BJP here on Friday.
"Jhoothi doorbeen lekar dhoondne ka dhong pura tha, jabki bagal mein chora jagat dhindora tha (the pretense of searching with false binoculars was complete, the person being searched was standing alongside)," the SP president posted.
The reference was to Mr. Shah's remark during his speech on Friday that no 'bahubali', as politicians with a criminal history or strongmen are often called, can be found even if you look for them with binoculars.
Praising the law and order situation under the Yogi Adityanath government, Mr. Shah had said, "Before 2017, seeing the bad condition of the law and order of Uttar Pradesh my blood would boil. In the era of the earlier government, girls could not come out of the house. There were two-three 'bahubalis' in every district but today, even if I look with binoculars, I do not see any 'bahubali' anywhere.”
On October 3, of the eight people killed in during the violence in Lakhimpuri Kheri, four were farmers. Union Minister of State for Home Mishra's son Ashish has been arrested. Some farmers claimed that Ashish Mishra was in one of the vehicles that ran down the four farmers, an allegation denied by him and his father.
Opposition parties, including the SP and the Congress, have demanded the dismissal of Ajay Mishra.
