Senior Congress leader and former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had been trying to divide the country by raking up communally sensitive matters, Pakistan and other such sensational issues.
He also accused the chief minister of having no respect for women.
Addressing media persons at the UP Congress headquarters in Lucknow on Monday, Singh said “My family has links with the Nath sect. Whenever I have gone to Gorakhpur, I have gone to the Gorakhnath Math (shrine). Guru Gorakhnath had spread his teachings regarding social harmony. Yogi Adityanath forgot about them and started talking about 80 per cent versus 20 per cent, cremation ground versus graveyard, chacha jaan, Hindustan versus Pakistan etc. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh people wanted to operate the Indian Constitution from Manusmriti, hence opposed Dr Ambedkar. I condemn this."
The Congress veteran further said, "What Bharatiya Janata Party leaders say about women is very concerning. Yogi ji once said that if women acquire the qualities of men, they become demons."
Singh said that he was happy to see the Congress contesting on all 403 seats as the state had seen practically no developmental work in the last 32 years.
"In the last 32 years, successive governments in Uttar Pradesh were formed in the name of only caste and religion. No party spoke about education, health and employment. The Congress has been fighting for these issues. Maximum malnutrition is found in Uttar Pradesh. Most unemployed people are in Uttar Pradesh. All vacant posts are lying vacant. You have seen how students seeking jobs were beaten up in Prayagraj. Be it Hathras or Unnao, violence against women is increasing continuously. Only the Congress has been fighting against atrocities on women," he said.
Highlighting the selection of Congress candidates, Singh said that the party had decided to give 40 per cent seats to women under Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. "Till now candidates for 373 assembly seats have been declared and out of them, 155 are women. Priyanka’s slogan for women, 'Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon', has created a new atmosphere in the entire country," he said.
The former MP chief minister also released a Congress party’s White Paper on unemployment and said that the country's economy suffered the most due to the BJP's decision of demonetisation. Due to this, thousands of medium and small scale industries were closed and 50 lakh people became unemployed, he said.
“Unemployment rate had increased to 6.1 per cent in 2017-18, even before the coronavirus pandemic created havoc. What is even more worrying is that as per the World Bank, the share of women in the workforce in India, which was 26 per cent in 2005, came down to 15.5 per cent in 2020. Also, the decision to clamp lockdown brought down the economy and increased unemployment during the pandemic. Even in tackling COVID-19, the government became a butt of joke at the international level. People were given seven days to impose a lockdown in Singapore, but in India the lockdown was declared in four hours. The MNREGA, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposed, gave employment to migrant labourers in their villages,” Singh pointed out.
The veteran Congress leader said that seven lakh posts were vacant in government jobs in the country and recruitments were not being done. “There is also a crisis in the manufacturing sector in the country. The Central government is collecting education cess, but no one has any accounts of Rs 1.08 lakh crore collected through it. The only qualification being seen for appointment in educational and research institutions is that the person concerned should be from the RSS,” he claimed.
Attacking the RSS mindset, Singh said, “Sar Sanghchalak of RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, said that marriage was a social contract under which there was an agreement between the husband and the wife. But neither Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath married nor Mohan Bhagwat, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi left his spouse after marrying. All three have no experience of running a family.”