Akhilesh accuses BJP of stoking fire in UP to divert attention from price-rise

NEW DELHI: Accusing BJP of stoking fire in Moradabad after an amicable compromise over the use of loudspeaker in a temple had been reached, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said the saffron outfit is raising emotive issues to divert focus from all-round price rise and anger among people against the Centre.

“There are such important issues confronting the country. I don’t know why is BJP raising such emotive controversies,” Yadav told TOI, adding, “They want to vitiate the atmosphere.”

The chief minister said the loudspeaker was installed at the behest of “some BJP leaders” after Lok Sabha elections because they had promised it to the people. “But a compromise was signed by the two groups in the village and the issue was resolved. Later, the BJP’s traders cell said it did not agree with the compromise,” he added.

“What has happened to the BJP suddenly? When Samajwadi Party held a dharna to protest against inflation (against the Centre) recently in Lucknow, BJP workers beat up our cadres with sticks and rods. Then they have raised the Moradabad temple issue. Why?” he wondered.

“India has an emotional democracy. BJP wants to misuse it for political benefits,” he said.

Yadav said the SP has decided to not speak about the performance of Modi government for first six months but it is a fact that prices of everything, from petrol to rail to vegetables to onions, have shot beyond the tolerance level of a majority of people. “We will raise it in the budget session of Parliament,” he said.