Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath slammed the opposition Samajwadi Party on Monday, saying that during its rule in the state, the chief minister did not have the time to review Kumbh arrangements and "a non-Sanatani was made its in charge".
He was referring to the Kumbh organised in 2013 when Akhilesh Yadav was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Mohammad Azam Khan was made the in charge of the religious congregation in Prayagraj.
In his address in the state assembly, Adityanath said, "We have not played with faith like you. In your time, the chief minister did not have time to see and review the event and therefore he appointed a non-Sanatani as the in-charge of Kumbh."
"But here I myself was reviewing Kumbh and am still doing it. This is the reason that whoever went to the Kumbh in 2013 saw chaos, corruption, and pollution.
There was no water fit for bathing in the Triveni of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. The prime minister of Mauritius is an example of this who refused to take a bath," he said.
Adityanath said that this time people are visiting the Maha Kumbh continuously.
"The President, the prime minister and the vice president visited there.
The King of Bhutan came, and heads of all other countries of the world —that is 74 nations — visited the place. All of them participated in the event and made it successful. For the first time... everyone became a part of this event and made it successful," he added.
Adityanath alleged that in the past one-and-a-half months, leftists and socialists made poisonous statements on social media about Maha Kumbh.
"Apart from dirt, disorder and trouble of tourists, they found nothing else there. But apart from all this, their ideology has no effect on the ground.
There is silence on hundreds of deaths due to conditions during Haj. The leftists and seculars of India who have been seen speaking on the Maha Kumbh maintain silence on that," he said.
Attacking the opposition over their criticism of Kumbh arrangements, he said whoever searched for something in Kumbh, got it.
