Samajwadi Party didn’t stand with Hindus in communal riots: Yogi Adityanath

Attacking Samajwadi Party’s PDA pitch yet again, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday accused the party of not standing with the Hindus during the communal riots. Addressing a public meeting in Aligarh to observe the fourth death anniversary of former U.P. Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, Mr. Adityanath alleged, “Those who want to break the unity of society by talking of PDA didn’t speak for Hindu victims during the communal riots of Aligarh, Bareilly, Meerut, and Muzaffarnagar.”

Mr. Adityanath specified that the Hindu victims of communal violence included Dalits, backward classes, businessmen, and Hindus belonging to the general category. “Only the BJP stood for them for we believe in development and security for all but appeasement of none,” he claimed.

PDA is a Hindi umbrella acronym for backward castes, Dalits, minorities, tribals, and women, and which paid electoral dividends to the SP in the Lok Sabha polls. Expanding PDA as “Parivar Development Authority” to accuse the SP of working for the interest of the Mulayam Singh Yadav family, Mr. Adityanath said in the last eight years of the BJP rule, when the State had become riot- and mafia-free, those who want “sabka saath for parivaar ka vikaas” once again wish to divide society.

Observed as Hindu Gaurav Diwas, the place and timing of the remark assume significance because Babuji, as Singh was fondly called, was not only a Hindutva icon of the BJP but was also the foremost face of the party who resigned from the CM’s post in December 1992 after he violated the affidavit given to the Supreme Court where he promised to the Babri mosque would be protected.

However, in 2024, the party suffered a setback when Rajveer Singh, his son, lost the family’s traditional Etah seat in the Lok Sabha polls, where votes of Lodhs and Mauryas play a decisive role. Sounding in a firefighting mode, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya made a strident pitch for Bharat Ratna for Babuji and said Aligarh would soon be renamed Harigarh.

Presenting the resignation of Singh before being sacked in 1992 as an act of sacrifice, Mr. Adityanath said, “By taking the responsibility of the demolition of the disputed structure, he brought the symbol of slavery to ruin and paved the way for the construction of Ram Temple.”

Taking on the INDIA alliance, the Chief Minister further alleged that on the one hand, the SP talks of PDA, while on the other, when the infiltrators from Bangladesh and Pakistan, and Rohingya are being removed from voter lists to secure the interests of the deprived and the backwards, the party, along with Congress, is putting a spanner in the efforts of the Election Commission and the judiciary.

Earlier, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also cited Singh’s ‘sacrifice’ and Uma Bharti’s resignation as Madhya Pradesh’s CM in 2003 (after warrants were issued against her in the Hubli riots case of 1994) to defend the contentious Bill on the removal of the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers arrested on serious charges for 30 days. “While Babuji and sister Uma Bharti resigned because of their nationalist beliefs, [AAP national convener] Arvind Kejriwal didn’t demit office despite criminal charges.”

He said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi described the Bill as “black” because he had aligned with criminals in U.P. and Bihar.

Ms Bharti, who also hails from the Lodh community and describes herself as Singh’s sister, made a surprise entry at the event. After praising Mr. Adityanath for effectively taking forward the crime control policies started by Singh, she struck a note that indicated her interest in returning to mainstream politics.

“Those hailing from the clan of Babuji should take a pledge to claim their rights like a lion and not wait for the leftovers like jackals. I will be alive as long as you need me, the nation needs me,” she said.

Currently, Singh’s grandson serves as a Minister of State in the U.P. government, and his acolyte, B.L. Verma, is a Minister of State at the Centre.