Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed ideological victory over opposition parties, saying that the latter were involved in intense competition to polish their credentials as Ram bhakt and chant Jai Shri Ram.
“Aaj topi utar gai hai. The opposition has conveniently shed the culture of wearing skull caps. Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party never paid attention to the development of Ayodhya and other important pilgrim centres as their leaders were more interested in erecting their own memorials and statues. Now they are claiming to be true Ram bhakts,” the chief minister said in Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Thursday.
“It is the victory of our ideology. Before 2017, they (Samajwadi Party) talked of establishing the idol of Kans, now they all bow down before Bhagwan Ram, Krishna. UP is land of the divine known for Bhagirathi, Ganga, Maryada Purushottam Ram, Yogeshwar Krishna, Kashi Vishwanath temple and several Shakti Peeths. UP was also an important centre of freedom struggle and eco and heritage tourism but no attention was paid by the previous government in the last seven decades,” Yogi Adityanath stressed.
Referring to Kumbh Mela, the chief minister said, “Every previous government in Uttar Pradesh had the opportunity to make Kumbh Mela a grand success. But they were busy offering ‘mubarakwaad’ wearing skull cap. Par aaj topi utar gai hai. The fact is that the opposition did not put any effort into the development, neither talked about Ayodhya and its development. Today, when it seems that society would not forgive them, they bow down and worship Lord Shiva, Krishna and Ram. This victory of ideology is the biggest victory for us,” the chief minister said.
Taking further dig at the opposition, Yogi said, “They did not like distributing food grains to the poor. Even when we started Mukhyamantri Samuhik Vivah Yojana, they said that it was an insult to the poor. This shows that the opposition is not used to walking on the ground. During the last four-and-a-half years, over 1.52 lakh girls have been married under Mukhyamantri Samuhik Vivah Yojana.”
“When the BJP came to power in 2017, Uttar Pradesh was at number five in the tourism map of India. Today it is at number one position. Irrespective of caste and creed, the benefits of welfare schemes were provided to all 24 crore people of the state. No discrimination was done in any of the schemes on the basis of an person’s religion, caste or even political affiliations. For us, everyone is equal and a part of our family,” the chief minister said.
Lashing out at the previous governments for misleading the farmers, Yogi said that his government had provided minimum support price (MSP) to the farmers.
“For the first time, farmers got the benefit of MSP at 1.5 times the cost. The concept of MSP is meaningless unless the produce of the farmer is purchased by the government agencies. In 2016, the SP government procured only six lakh metric tons of wheat, while the procurement was 56 lakh MT in 2021, despite the pandemic,” he said.