The Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has urged Janata Dal (United) veteran Nitish Kumar to pull out the party’s support for the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre after Yadav was barred from paying his respects on the statue of Jayaprakash Narayan in Lucknow. This incident happened on Thursday, immediately triggering massive protests from the Samajwadi Party workers. Presently, Kumar’s JDU is in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance or NDA, yet the relation between the two is far from friendly.
Akhilesh Yadav spoke specifically on the current government and opined that many people who claim to be socialists are doing the government’s bidding even if it is anti-socialist. He pointed out that Nitish Kumar, who came to the political limelight through the movement spearheaded by JP, should take this chance to come out of the government, which hinders baulks from paying homage to a secular socialist leader on his Jayanti.
“JP was perhaps the most prominent Gandhian freedom fighter who was vigorously involved in agitating against the Indira Gandhi government in 1975. When the son of the nation has made such efforts, and efforts which are irreplaceable, this government has been acting so and so,” Yadav said. He also questioned the current government’s effort to auction the museum for Jayaprakash Narayan, stating that its move is to show less concern in preserving constitutionalism.
Reacting to Yadav’s statements, the BJP leader Shazia Ilmi focused on them as vulgar political populism. “If Akhilesh Yadav really wants to pay tribute to Jayaprakash Narayan, then he should avoid going with those very parties that directly fought against all those principles that Narayan fought during the emergency period. He knows the ongoing projects and otherwise to honour,” she said. The Lucknow Development Authority also came forward to state that the JP Narayan Convention Centre project is in construction, which means that from that standpoint, some restrictions had to be put on access due to logistical constraints.
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