Lucknow:
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath hit out at the opposition Samajwadi Party on the 51st anniversary of Emergency today, accusing party chief Akhilesh Yadav of sinking the legacy of his father with his repeated alliances with the Congress. The SP and the Congress have renewed their alliance ahead of the 2027 state polls despite their huge defeat a decade ago.
“Remember, whenever the SP wanted to enter an alliance with the Congress, the late Mulayam Singh used to object to it. He used to say there should be no alliance with the Congress,” the Chief Minister said today.
“But what is his heir doing? See how he behaves. No matter what happens, he climbs onto the Congress’s sinking ship, eager to sink the legacy of Mulayam Singh. This is because the Congress had crushed democracy and he has no respect for democracy either,” he added.
In his lifetime, Mulayam Singh had been vehemently against the Congress and had been one of the chief opponents of the Emergency, imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.
The Congress and the SP retaliated sharply.
SP spokesperson Anurag Bhadouria said the party has always been trying to save the Constitution.
“When the Constitution was in danger in 1975, the SP had fought then too. Today, the constitution in danger again,” he said, calling the current situation in the country an “undeclared Emergency”.
“Look at the incidents the public is witnessing. How, for instance, as many as 150 MPs are suspended from parliament, and laws are passed thereafter. Is this respect for the Constitution? Consider how Opposition parties are being split – whether it was the Shiv Sena, the NCP, the way the Trinamool Congress is currently being targeted, or how (BJP ally Ram Vilas) Paswan-ji’s party was split – is this process of breaking parties Constitutional? The public chooses a specific ideology, yet MPs break away, driven by whatever inducements are offered, and join another party, join the NDA… This betrayal of the public is precisely what the ‘INDIA’ alliance is fighting against today,” he added.
Congress’s Pooja Tripathi ripped into the state government, questioning how it could focus on Opposition politics now, in the aftermath of the coaching centre fire in state capital Lucknow in which 15 lives were lost, most of them young students.
“Just imagine a constitutional head of a state, Chief Minister of a state, and his bizarre, misplaced priorities,” the Congress spokesperson said.
“Children have died in Lucknow fire, and he has been telling people “bhashan mat do (don’t give lectures)” when they say they are BJP supporters seeking justice for their lost children. And this is what he’s interested in – breaking of INDIA alliance,” she said.
“What are your priorities as a Chief Minister of a state? Crores of funds have been embezzled in the Ram Mandir donation scam. People are losing lives in fire tragedy… You should be meeting the families, you should be ordering inquiries… But what you are actually interested is taking political muckshots at Akhilesh Yadav and INDIA alliance,” she added.
