Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath speaks during the Budget Session of UP Assembly, in Lucknow.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday targeted Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi over a recent speech comparing politics in north and south India and said that the opposition leader was playing divisive politics.
“I was listening to a statement of a leader of a national party who has been elected from Uttar Pradesh many times and he is making fun of the people of the state (Uttar Pradesh) in Kerala and trying to divide the people. He has done it earlier too,” the chief minister told the state Assembly while speaking on Governor's address to the joint session of both the houses.
Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Adityanath said the divisive mentality of the Congress party’s leaders poses serious danger to national security. The comments by the chief minister evoked a sharp reaction from the Congress benches as they lodged a vociferous opposition.
Addressing a public gathering in Thiruvananthapuram, Rahul Gandhi had said, "For the first 15 years, I was an MP in the north. I had got used to a different type of politics. For me, coming to Kerala was very refreshing as suddenly I found that people are interested in issues and not just superficially but going into detail in issues."
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This mentality poses serious danger to national security: Yogi Adityanath hits out at Rahul Gandhi
"It is this mentality that has posed a serious danger to national security,” Adityanath said, adding Amethi and Uttar Pradesh gave enough opportunities to the Gandhis but they preferred going to Italy instead of visiting their constituencies.
Rahul Gandhi, who was representing the Amethi constituency of Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha since 2004, contested from the Wayanad seat in Kerala simultaneously in the 2019 general elections. Although, he lost Amethi to Smriti Irani of the BJP, he won from the Congress bastion in Kerala.
Rae Bareli and Amethi have been two Congress bastions in Uttar Pradesh. Rae Bareli is the Lok Sabha seat of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Again apparently targeting the Congress leadership, Adityanath said, “They tell the US ambassador that the real danger is not from Lashkar-e Taiba but from organisations within the country.”
What kind of mentality is this? Putting national organisations in the dock and issuing statements to discourage jawans at a time when the Army was giving a befitting reply to the enemy country at the border, he said.
Adityanath also took pot shots at Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who had visited Mathura on Tuesday.
“What kind of political sanskar is this that you remember temples only when you visit the state and then go on to say that you will save Vrindavan," he said.
Yogi Adityanath lashes out at Priyanka Gandhi
Referring to the Priyanaka Gandhi's offer of providing 1,000 buses to ferry migrant labourers who are stranded owing to a countrywide COVD-19 lockdown last year, he said, “This mentality worries me. The offer of buses was a joke in the midst of a pandemic.”
"I was very happy about the offer but upon an inquiry revealed that the registration numbers of buses provided (by Congress) belonged to scooters, three-wheelers,” he said.
If the Congress was serious about providing transportation, why did it failed to bring back students of the state from Kota, Rajasthan, he said, asking if any particular individual or family had the freedom to joke with the people during a pandemic.
The chief minister also attacked the Opposition parties for their “worrying” behaviour during the Governor Anandiben Patel's address.
“Governor is the constitutional head of the state and if the House does not pay proper respect to its constitutional head, it would pose a serious danger before the democratic system.
“Such behaviour raises questions over the legislature and we are regarded as untrustworthy,” he said. Besides being Governor, she is also a woman, at least the opposition should have respected that, the chief minister said.
Opposition parties including the Samajwadi Party, BSP and Congress had staged a walkout opposing Governor's address on the first day of the Budget session on February 18.
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