Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said that never in the past had a government controlled institutions as was being done in Bharatiya Janata Party rule in which probe agencies had been unleashed against opposition leaders to intimidate them.
Addressing media persons in Lucknow on Monday, Akhilesh said that the CBI, ED and IT Department were being misused by the BJP government for targeting opposition leaders to scare them so that illegal and unlawful acts of the government were not opposed.
The SP chief also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for destroying the economy by reckless policies leading to a slowdown and mass retrenchment of employees in different sectors.
“The BJP government had promised to provide 70 lakh jobs but now people are being thrown out of jobs. Even the economy of Bangladesh is performing better than that of India. This indicates that the BJP regime is mismanaging the economy and its wrong policies have hit the country’s growth,” Akhilesh said.
Reiterating that the SP has already clarified its stand on Article 370 in Parliament, the SP chief said, “The government said everything would be peaceful. But why are people under house arrest even after 20 days and there is a total lockdown in Kashmir valley.”
Akhilesh also sought to know why did the BJP government not take people’s opinion before taking such a drastic decision.
“The BJP is claiming that Dr Lohia was against Article 370 but what will they say about Dr Lohia’s dream of a ‘mahasangh’ comprising India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh?”’Akhilesh asked.
The SP chief also warned that if the people do not come up to oppose the BJP’s action like they did in Kashmir, then in future such things could happen anywhere in the country.
Reacting to the removal of SPG security given to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, the SP chief said, “Earlier, the same government removed my NSG cover and now it is the turn of other leaders.”
Speaking on UP, Akhilesh said that after completing half of his term in office, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had admitted that his Cabinet colleagues were indulging in rampant corruption and he was compelled to sack five ministers.
“The present Yogi government has failed in every field as no big investment is coming and the BJP government is only claiming its ownership on projects launched during the previous SP regime. The dream project ‘One District, One Product’ (ODOP) has no funding while there is no dearth of money for cow protection and cow sheds,” he said.
The former chief minister also alleged that the Yogi government was hounding SP Lok Sabha member Mohammad Azam Khan and had lodged over 70 criminal cases against him.
The Rampur police have registered cases against Khan in connection with encroachment on public and private land to construct Mohammad Ali Jauhar university and other issues.