Centre’s 5 year report a ‘lie’, it rules like British did: SP

New Delhi: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Lok Sabha MP Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday called the Central government’s report card presented by the President at the beginning of this session a “documents of lies” and accused the regime of “spreading scepticism” among people like British colonists who had adopted a divide and rule policy.

Referring to the ongoing violent protests across the country against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Akhilesh Yadav questioned the Centre’s working style, saying: “What kind of message is being delivered? How is violence being used as means (to control protests)?”

Elected from the the Azamgarh constituency, the Samajwadi Party (SP) MP accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government of failing to fulfil its “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas” commitment, suggesting that the saffron party “should be reading the philosophy of socialist political leader Ram Manohar Lohia, if it is giving respect to him”.

“Neither did they (BJP) take ‘Sabka Saath’ (everyone along) nor did they do ‘Sabka Vikas’ (all round development). They only spread ‘avishwas’ (scepticism) among people,” Yadav said, while participating in the discussion motion of thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind’s address delivered on January 31, on the first day of the Budget session.

“They are ruling like the British, who followed the divide and rule policy. The BJP is dividing Hindus and Muslims,” he added.

He described the government’s five years’ report card presented by the President in his address as a “document of lies” and “not truth”.

The 47-year-old Akhilesh Yadav also said that the Census 2021 — the 16th one, following the previous Census in 2011 — is under process but the government is not going to conduct the enumeration on the basis of caste.

“Why they are ignoring it (caste as a category) like Congress government?”, he asked.

He later accused the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government of stopping all welfare initiatives taken during his tenure like the setting up of potato and grain mandis (markets) in Mainpuri.