New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath on Saturday, had a full schedule of election rallies, in each of which he gave speeches which ranged from mildly incendiary to outright hateful.
Reports have said that AAP has written to the Election Commission against Adityanath’s speeches, alleging that he has violated the model code of conduct.
Lashing out at the people protesting against the new citizenship law, Adityanath said that those who supported terrorists in Kashmir were staging a protest in Shaheen Bagh and raising slogans of ‘azadi‘.
Adityanath also said that “their ancestors divided India”, so they have a grouse against this emerging ‘Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat’, and slammed the AAP government, saying it “supplies biryani” to protesters in Shaheen Bagh.
At his first poll rally of the day at Karawal Nagar Chowk in support of BJP candidate Mohan Singh Bisht and Mustafabad’s sitting MLA Jagdish Pradhan, Adityanath said the anti-CAA agitation was “against India” and an attempt to “malign the image” of the country.
“It is a roadblock in realising the dream of ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’,” he said.
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“People of Delhi, you have to decide, whether you want better health, better education facilities, better environment, metro services or whether Delhi needs Shaheen Bagh. I am here to tell you that,” Adityanath said, amid chants of ‘Yogi, Yogi’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
At another rally, the senior BJP leader sustained his attack on AAP, saying, “Kejriwal cannot even provide clean drinking water to the people of Delhi… According to a (BIS) survey, the Delhi government is making its people drink poisonous water. But it is supplying biryani to those protesting in Shaheen Bagh and elsewhere in the city.”
Hundreds of people, including women and children, have been protesting in Shaheen Bagh since December 15 against the amended law and the National Register of Citizens. They say the citizenship law is discriminatory and fear it targets Muslims.
During the assembly poll campaign, BJP leaders have been urging people to vote for the party to show their disapproval for the ongoing anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh.
At the third rally in support of BJP candidate Vijender Gupta in Rohini, Adityanath claimed Mahatma Gandhi had said India should provide citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians fleeing atrocities in Pakistan, and “therefore, it (the citizenship law) should be welcomed”.
“Those who supported terrorists in Kashmir have come and sat on a dharna in Shaheen Bagh against the CAA and are raising slogans of ‘azadi’,” Adityanath said.
“You should understand what they want, what they think about India, where are they taking it. If they indulge in rioting or arson…In Uttar Pradesh, I told the administration to make them pay for the damages and we seized their property,” the firebrand BJP leader said.
In the same rally he said, that those who do not listen to words will surely understand the language of the bullet while referring to the Kanwar yatra and purported efforts to stymie the religious festival, reported Scroll.in.
The UP CM also said that since Narendra Modi became the prime minister, “we have been identifying every terrorist and feeding them ‘goli‘ instead of biryani”.
“Let Kashmir remain in peace … If you will speak the language of Pakistan, in favour of Pakistan, the soldier’s gun will show you the way to hell,” he said.
Also read: Delhi Police Grants Permission to Chant ‘Shoot the Traitors’, Then Backtracks
At the Karawal Nagar rally, he also said, “The protests (at Shaheen Bagh) have disrupted daily life, we cannot condemn it less,” the senior BJP leader said.
“These protests are not about CAA, it is happening because those people are questioning how can India emerge as a major power in the world, and stop that rising India,” he claimed.
Adityanath also asserted that his party and the central government will not allow a rule that divides the country into segments and “will not allow terrorism, insurgency, and Naxalism in India”.
On Thursday, the Election Commission banned Union minister Anurag Thakur and BJP MP Parvesh Verma from campaigning for 72 and 96 hours, respectively, in view of their provocative comments at an election rally in the city earlier this week.
(With PTI inputs)