PM Modi links Samajwadi Party’s cycle symbol with terrorists. Akhilesh Yadav responds: “Cycle is the aeroplane of the common people, it is the pride of rural India, to insult a cycle is to insult the entire nation.”
Yesterday at a BJP rally in Hardoi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted political rivals Samajwadi Party and Congress for being soft on terror. He linked SP’s election symbol– a cycle– with terrorists in the context of the 49 people convicted of the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts on Friday.
“The attitude of Samajwadi Party and Congress leaders is most alarming. They address a terrorist like Osama as ‘ji’. They even shed tears over the elimination of terrorists in Batla House encounter,” he said.
“In the initial blasts, the bombs were kept on cycles…I wonder why they (terrorists) opted for cycles,” the Prime Minister remarked.
He accused the Akhilesh-led Samajwadi Party of seeking to withdraw cases against terrorists.
“Similarly, in 14 cases of terrorist attacks in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi government had given orders to withdraw the cases from many terrorists. These people were setting off blast after blast, and the Samajwadi Party government was not even allowing these terrorists to be prosecuted,” he added.
Akhilesh Yadav took to Twitter to respond to this attack by the Prime Minister. The former UP chief minister wrote, “Our cycle connects farms with farmers and lays the foundation for their prosperity. Our cycle breaks through social bounds and drops daughters to school.
“Our cycle remains unaffected by inflation. It runs at its own pace. A cycle is the aeroplane of the common people, it is the pride of rural India. To insult a cycle is to insult the entire nation.” An image of a boy riding pillion on a cycle was attached to the tweet.
Earlier this week, Union Minister Anurag Thakur of BJP showed a photograph of an Ahmedabad bomb blast convict’s father with the Samajwadi Party chief. He alleged that Akhilesh Yadav had ‘connections’ with the Ahmedabad blasts perpetrators.
Seeking a response from Yadav, he said, “The BJP has always had zero tolerance for terrorism, whereas the SP stands with those involved in terror activities. Ahmedabad serial blasts had direct links to SP leaders in Uttar Pradesh.”
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also jumped in the fray, questioning their silence on the matter, and accused SP of fielding terrorists, criminals, and orchestrating riots very fourth day of its regime.
The former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party have categorically denied these claims.
The attack by Thakur came a day ahead of the third phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP and the SP are locked in a direct contest. Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party is the BJP’s biggest challenger in the state. The results of elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other states will be declared on March 10.
Edited By- Kritika Kashyap
Published By- Bharat Anand
