Daijiworld Media Network - Pilibhit

Pilibhit, Jun 30: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP), accusing them of ignoring the struggles of displaced Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist families who were forced to leave their homes during Partition and later from Bangladesh.

Addressing a public gathering in Pilibhit during the inauguration and foundation stone laying of 66 development projects worth Rs 569 crore, Adityanath said the Congress and SP “ought to die of shame” for allegedly failing to support such families despite being in power for several years.

“Arrey Samajwadi Party aur Congress ke logon, besharmi ke saath doob maro. Those families getting citizenship and land documents today, a majority are from Dalit and most backward caste communities. Why did you not raise your voice for them? You ruled for long but never thought about giving these poor people their identity,” he said.

During the event, the chief minister distributed citizenship certificates to more than 2,500 families displaced from erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

Adityanath accused the Opposition of putting “politics over the country” and blamed the Congress for the Partition of India, claiming that the party’s pursuit of power led to the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

“It was due to the sin of the Congress that Bangladesh came into existence. It was due to greed for power that Pakistan came into existence. Had the Congress stood firm, Jinnah would have died his own death. The Partition of India would not have happened,” he said.

He said lakhs of Hindus were killed and forced to leave their ancestral lands during Partition and hoped that independent India would provide them shelter, citizenship and dignity.

“But the Congress never cared for them. The Samajwadi Party, too, had no time for them because they were busy with appeasement politics instead of thinking about the poor, Dalits, backward classes and the deprived,” he said.

The chief minister said displaced families from Bangladesh, including Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists who had suffered for decades, were being rehabilitated and granted Indian citizenship under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Now, no power can send them out of India, nor can they be called outsiders. This was done by PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah,” Adityanath said.

He credited the BJP-led government with implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), describing it as a humanitarian measure aimed at providing citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Taking a jibe at SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, whom he often refers to as ‘Babua’, Adityanath said the SP could have shown similar concern towards such families but failed to do so.

“The sensitivity we are showing the SP could have also shown but for Babua it wasn’t possible. He wakes up at 12 noon, gets ready by 2 pm and heads to the gym by 5 pm. How could he have the time or inclination to listen to the suffering of the poor?” he said.

Adityanath said around 15,000 people from the 2,500 families in Pilibhit would benefit from the scheme. He added that Uttar Pradesh has around 55,000 such families.

He said citizenship certificates and land documents had earlier been distributed to displaced families in Barabanki and Bijnor, and the process would continue across the state.