LUCKNOW: "Kaise manzar saamne aane lage hain, gaate gaate log chillane lage hain," chief minister Yogi Adityanath quoted poet Dushyant Kumar amid laughter and table banging from BJP, as he responded to leader of opposition Akhilesh Yadav’s budget speech in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday.
A day after Yadav had hit out at the government for "making tall claims but failing in delivery", the CM picked up on a line quoted by Yadav a day earlier where he said that a schoolchild had once mistaken him for Congress president Rahul Gandhi. "This was no mistake. Rahul Gandhi criticises India when he is out of the country and you criticise UP when you are out of the state," the CM said.
Picking up another point made by Yadav during his speech on how cow dung has a smell, the CM commented on how Yadav probably does not pray or else would have known the significance of cow dung in Hindu culture. "If you had ever done gau seva, you would have spoken her language, with a clear intellect. However, the impact of consuming buffalo milk was clear in your speech. Maybe you don’t want to believe us but you could have learnt something about cows from your chacha (uncle) Shivpal," the CM taunted, referring to Yadav’s once estranged uncle who continues to give mixed signals about his loyalties to the SP party chief.
He said that while Yadav spoke about farmers, natural farming is not possible without cow dung. Even incense sticks are being made with cow dung, he said, but added that Yadav was unlikely to know that since he "did not perform puja".
Accusing SP of using minorities only as vote bank, the CM added that while minorities form 18-19% of UP’s population, their share in government schemes is about 35%. However, he said, while SP spent money on the development of kabristans, the burial ground of Muslims, the BJP government was developing teerth sthals or places of Hindu pilgrimage.
"For years, the Centre offered you schemes to implement in the state, but your government did not show any interest. The result is that the people of the state rejected you for being so unconcerned about them," the CM said.
