Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the opposition was instigating people and fomenting violence over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the cover of democracy.
He charged that an opposition party was running a malicious campaign to mislead the people for strengthening its vote bank for the ultimate benefit of a political dynasty.
“This is unacceptable. The violence in different parts of the country has clearly established that the opposition leaders incited the people of the minority community for their narrow political ends. The name of a senior Congress leader has emerged in the violence at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi. The Congress MLAs have committed contempt of the House and 23 crore people of UP by wearing badge on their wrist as this House does not belong to a particular political party or dynasty,” the chief minister said in UP assembly on Wednesday.
Lashing out at the opposition for questioning the law and order in the state and their protest over the CAA, Yogi Adityanath said that crime and Samajwadi Party were “synonymous” while asserting that no riot had taken place during his regime and the state was peaceful.
The chief minister was responding to the adjournment notice given by the opposition parties over the deteriorating law and order in the state, particularly the Bijnor incident in which a murder accused under trial was gunned down in the courtroom of the chief judicial magistrate.
Yogi Adityanath said that the incidents of gang-rape in Unnao and murder in Bijnor were unfortunate. “But no riot has taken place in Uttar Pradesh during the last two-and-a-half years. The state remained peaceful after abrogation of Article 370 and the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya issue,” the chief minister said.
“The opposition should learn to accept facts and truth,” he said.
Yogi Adityanath said law and order was the prime concern of his government and no laxity would be tolerated in the maintenance of law and order.
Targeting the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, the chief minister said: “The Bharatiya Janata Party realised the dream of Dr Ambedkar by abrogating Article 370 giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir and brought the border state in the constitutional mainstream, and this was opposed by the Congress’.”
He said Congress also attempted to delay the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya issue and created the impression that hell would break lose after the verdict.
“Not even a mosquito was killed in UP after the Ayodhya verdict’’, Yogi Adityanath said.
Moreover, he said, those behind the 1984 Sikh genocide in Delhi, had the audacity of lecturing us on law and order.
The chief minister also reminded the Samajwadi Party that ‘Kanwar Yatra’ was banned by the Akhilesh Yadav regime and the superintendent of police in Mathura was killed in Jawaharbagh violence.
Yogi Adityanath said the Samajwadi Party had always sided with criminals whenever the government took tough action.
“They took out candle processions when notorious criminals were gunned down by the police and even approached the court to mount pressure on the government and the law enforcement agencies,” he said.
The SP and Congress MLAs staged a noisy scene on the statement of the chief minister and trooped in the well of the House to protest his taking the names of opposition parties behind the CAA violence.
Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit rejected the adjournment notice and adjourned the House for the day after completing the agenda amidst slogan-shouting by the opposition.
The chief minister, listing the crime statistics, claimed that incidents of rape in the state had gone down by 12.9 per cent in 2019 against the figure of 2016. Besides, he said, crime against women, including dowry related and kidnapping, too had decreased.
He said that the UP government had taken tough measures to tone up law and order, forcing criminals to either flee the state or be behind the bars.
“BJP has zero tolerance towards crime and there is no place for violence or crime in UP.” he said.
Earlier, leader of the opposition and SP member Ram Govind Chaudhary, BSP leader Lalji Verma and Congress leader Aradhana Mishra slammed the BJP government over the deteriorating law and order in the state.