Yogi questions Akhilesh Yadav meeting father of Delhi violence accused

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday questioned a recent meeting between the father of student leader Umar Khalid, an accused in the Delhi violence case, and SP President Akhilesh Yadav, charging the main opposition party with crossing all limits.

"Opposition parties can go to any extent. You must have seen who recently came to meet with a party. Umar Khalid's father. Umar Khalid who says 'Bharat tere tukde honge', the chief minister said addressing 'samajik pratinidhi sammelan' here.

That person (Khalid's father) comes to meet the Samajwadi Party president and assures him not to worry as he was working for the Samajwadi Party," Adityanath added.

"What do you expect if these people come (to power), what can be expected of them?" he asked.

On October 2, the national president of the Welfare Party of India, Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, had met SP president Akhilesh Yadav. Ilyas is the father of student leader Umar Khalid, an accused in the February 2020 Delhi violence case. His party has announced its support to the SP in the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Khalid is in jail for over a year now in the Delhi violence case. He had been shot into the limelight earlier for allegedly raising anti-national slogans at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Attacking previous governments, the chief minister said, "Whether it was the Congress, SP or the BSP government, they all tore the social fabric in the name of casteism and threw the state in the fire of riots.

They had mortgaged the state to the mafia but after the BJP government took over with your blessings, not only proper security arrangements were made, but it was also ensured that no mafia element can now walk with its head raised, he said.

"We have to always keep in mind that those who divided the society for their political interests have damaged it irreparably, have torn its social fabric. But they have been pushed into history by society without hesitation. This is an example before all of us," he said.

Stressing that every individual should take pride in his country, Adityanath said if we promote nationalism while avoiding casteism, we will be able to lead both the country and the society on the path of welfare.

Attacking SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, he alleged that during the SP government, about 1,500 children died of encephalitis within two months in Gorakhpur Medical College but the then chief minister never went to enquire about their condition.

Claiming to have fought the COVID-19 pandemic in a proper way, the chief minister said, "Had this pandemic come during the tenure of the Congress government, imagine what would have happened.

The brother and sister duo (Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi) would have fled to Italy, they wouldn't have been seen in India, he said.

Had this outbreak occurred during the SP government, there would have been a competition between the uncle and nephew (SP president Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav) as to who should grab how much without caring for the poor and how to give contracts (for different works during the pandemic ) to which mafia, he said.

And had it come during the time of Behen ji (BSP President Mayawati), bhagwan hi malik hota' (only God could have saved us), he added.

The chief minister said everyone has seen how a proper campaign was undertaken to fight against the pandemic.

All need to feel proud that India has become the first country in the world to cross 100 crore COVID-19 vaccination mark, he added.