Chief Minister, ministers in UP using government functions to criticise opposition

“Kaka, mama, nana, bhatija (uncle, maternal uncle, maternal grandfather, nephew), you must have heard of them either in Mahabharata or between 2012 and 2017. Before 2017, the recruitment charge in different departments was given to the family members. Some to uncles, some to brothers, and others to nephews. They are the reincarnated characters of Mahabharata who impeded Uttar Pradesh’s progress by launching a war just like they did at the time of Mahabharata.”

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said this while distributing appointment letters to the newly selected 57 Naib Tehsildars, 141 Lecturers and 69 Assistant Teachers through Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission in a function held at Lok Bhawan in the state capital on Thursday.

This is a new trend in Uttar Pradesh where Chief Minister and his ministers are using the official functions to send the political message across. They talk less about their department and scheme and more about the political opponents.

On January 4, while addressing a gathering after inaugurating 660 MW Harduaganj thermal project in Mathura Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath termed the opposition as the ‘followers of Kans’, not Krishna and said that they should fear Lord Krishna for giving birth to unscrupulous elements like 'Kans' and for burning the state in the fire of hatred.

He made the reference of Kans and Krishna because he was addressing the gathering in Mathura.

In the similar way, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while flagging off a new train to Kamakhaya from Lucknow on Thursday, used the opportunity of hit out at Samajwadi Party and the Congress. “There are two political parties that worked only for the welfare of their family members, while we in BJP think about the nation first,” he said in his speech which was more political than administrative.

A day earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that Samajwadi Party used public money on the welfare of its family members while BJP used the money for the welfare of the masses.

This time too the occasion was a government function in which Maurya, who is also PWD Minister, inaugurated bridges, roads and bypasses.

It all started when Prime Minister Narendra Modi while inaugurating Fertilizer factory and AIIMs in Gorakhpur called `Red cap as red alert for Uttar Pradesh’ in apparent reference to Samajwadi Party whose workers wear red caps during political meetings.

"These people only need power for scams, for encroachment, to give a free run to mafias. The red caps want to form the government to get terrorists released from jail... The red caps are red alerts for Uttar Pradesh... the danger alarm," he had said during his address.