Samajwadi Party national general secretary and former UP minister Mohammad Azam Khan castigated Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his statement that Lord Hanuman was a Dalit. “I am at my wit’s end to comment on this issue. I do not know whether to laugh or cry. It appears that the Chief Minister has donned the mantle of a historian,” he commented.
The SP leader said that it seemed that Yogi had done a PhD from Oxford or Cambridge University or from Nalanda University and his statement should be welcomed. Khan, who attended a meeting of SP workers in Moradabad on Saturday, said that the CM should also clarify as to which Dalit caste did Lord Hanuman belong as there were several sub-castes within the community.
The SP leader said that some leaders were in the habit of creating controversy over gods and goddesses. “A senior BJP leader of UP had earlier said that Goddess Sita was the first test tube baby of the universe,” he reminded. When asked that the UP government has restricted the use of marriage halls and guesthouses in Prayagraj during Kumbh Mela from January next, Khan said: “The Yogi government could even bring a new law that no children could be born or no one could die during the mela period.”
The SP leader claimed that Kumbh Mela was organised in the past too, but since elections were round the corner, hence such orders were being passed for political reasons as the Yogi government had failed to fulfill the promises made to the people during 2017 UP Assembly elections.