We hardly hear much from Uttar Pradesh—except when Kairana happens or an unfortunate police officer is killed by a mob. Instead, the Lutyens Media jumps on the pedal on stray cattle, Muslims, renaming of cities or killings of criminals which they term “fake encounters.” The Hindu tried to corner Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on all these issues and more. Yogi Adityanath’s answers, in his own words, are irrefutable logic and worth readers’ time.
ON LAW AND ORDER SITUATION:
This used to be a state where every second day you had a riot…The mafia raj was sheltered by the administration…Today who breaks the law will be confronted by the law…Not a single one of the encounters was fake…Our officers have been killed, injured badly in the process. (Besides), the Supreme Court and the Human Rights Commission have laid down norms to be followed, and those have been adhered to in each case.
SELECTIVE USE OF NSA:
No that is not the case…In Saharanpur, whether it was Chandrashekhar (head of Bhim Army) or the other side…three from each side were charged under the NSA. Law was not specific to any group. In Bulandshahr (where a mob killed a police officer), strict action has been taken against the culprits.
There have been no riots in the state in the last two years. Look at the peaceful and calm manner in which the Kumbh was completed (where 25 crore devotees turned up).
RENAMING OF CITIES
If Bombay can become Mumbai, Bangalore can become Bengaluru, Madras can become Chennai and Calcutta a new name is Kolkata, there is no reason why Allahabad and Faizabad can’t be renamed. To re-establish our original identity. And it doesn’t have religious undertone. Mumbai is from Mumba Devi Mandir. Trivandrum has become Thiruvananthpuram (after Bhagwan Vishnu).
MUSLIMS, TERROR AND CONGRESS
I am a Hindu…a Hindu is interested in the welfare of all. Not merely human beings but all living beings. Sarve bhavantu Sukhina, sarve santu niramaya. ..that is Hindu philosophy. (As for threats coming from those who live in India but speak the language of Pakistan) it’s unfortunate. For the Congress to promise that it will dilute sedition laws is an act of encouraging anti-national forces. He (Rahul Gandhi) uses foul language for Modiji. Our defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman is being attacked in vicious language.
There has been unprecedented progress in infrastructure, and external and internal security…when Modiji came to power, dozens of districts were affected by Naxals. Today, it is confined to five-six districts. The Northeast had several separatist incidents—all the extremists were neutralized through one surgical strike. Kashmir used to witness massive incidents of stone pelting. Today it is under control.
RAM TEMPLE OR RAM STATUE
We are making progress…we won’t backtrack. Whatever we have announced, we shall do…Everything will be completed during our tenure (BJP as ruling party in UP).
MUGHALS AS OUR HERITAGE
No. Foreign aggressors can’t be part of our heritage. Those who are our citizens today are our citizens. Their security and welfare are our responsibility. But if someone says that foreign aggressors are part of our inheritance, I will say that is slave mentality.
STRAY CATTLE MENACE
This was two months before. Things have significantly improved. This has been a legacy issue. Yes, we have shut down all the illegal slaughter houses. The National Green Tribunal and court orders on this predate our government. While illegal slaughter houses were closed, a large number of cattles were let loose…originally our plan was to encourage the community to take care of these cattle…but it didn’t succeed. Low milk-yielding breeds are not viable for farmers. Secondly, we wanted to spread sex selection methods to have more female progeny…bulls are needed less as farming gets mechanized. Thirdly, we wanted to develop technology that could refill cooking gas-cylinders with gas from dung so that cattle remain productive.
But the farmers began saying we should take care of these stray cattles first. As of now, we have 4 lakh cattle being taken care of in shelters. We needed money for this. We used the MGNREGA for construction in some places. We introduced a cess on foreign liquor in some places. We also generated some money from mandis—this is related to the welfare of farmers, after all. Our measures for cow protection will continue.
UP’s ACHIEVEMENTS
We are today the first in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. We are number one in the Swachh Bharat Mission. In tourism, India is the best destination for FDI and UP is the best in India…We ensure that the minimum support price is given to farmers, and the money reaches their bank accounts in 48 hours. No middlemen. We have added more land to the irrigation network in the last two years than in the 20 years prior to that.
