Attacking Samajwadi-Congress alliance, senior BJP leader and Union law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that ‘kaarnama’ (activity) of Samajwadi Party will have an impact on the coming elections despite the Chief Minister’s claim that ‘kaam bolta hai’.
“The crime rate in the state is on the rise. Can you imagine a minister threatening a scribe IJ A woman, who complained against a ruling party MlA, was murdered. Interestingly Akhilesh Yadav started his campaign from this accused MlA’s constituency, as he treated him as good luck charm,” Prasad said while addressing reporters in lucknow on Thursday.
The Union minister said that it was not ‘kaam bolta hai’ but ‘karnama bolta hai’. He also attacked the slogan, ‘UP ko yeah saath pasand hai’, saying that these parties were daggers drawn but now they are claiming to be friends.
Prasad even claimed bad blood in the alliance. “What happened about joint rallies and road shows of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi IJ Something is fishy as after Kanpur and Meerut, they did not go for joint rallies as there is some bitterness within the alliance,” he said adding: “Congress led by Nehru-Gandhi family had ditched lal Bahadur Shastri, VP Singh, Charan Singh and even Narsimha Rao. And now what will happen to Akhilesh is everyone’s guess.”
Commenting on the development front in UP during the present SP regime, the Union minister said that not a single big factory or investment has come to UP in the last five years.
When asked about Ayodhya, Prasad said that as this issue is sub-juidice it is not an agenda of the BJP. “The BJP has never raked up the issue and was waiting for the court’s ruling on the Ram temple. As a lawyer in the Ayodhya title suit I am sure that there would be a Ram Temple at Ayodhya,” he said.
The BJP leader also defended the Centre’s move on Triple Talaq issue saying it was not a matter of religion but was directly linked to gender injustice and equality in the country.
“There is no voice of opposition when 20 Islamic countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan have banned Triple Talaq but as India is a secular country hence such protests are made,” he said.
The Union minister also made it clear that the Centre was also in the process of notifying the system of ‘panic button’ on the mobile phones so that the women in distress could send messages to their near and dear ones.
“ The Centre is committed to providiung a safe and secure environment for the women in the country,” he said.
Reacting to the statement of AICC general secretary Gulam Nabi Azad terming the strict action on Kashmiri youths by Army as being taken on the Centre’s order, the Union minister said “Handful of youths on the direction from Pakistan are trying to create disturbances and it cannot be tolerated at any cost.”
“It is the Army personnel who are sacrificing their lives for us and it is the duty of every citizen to support the army for their any action,” he said.