In a veiled attack on BJP, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said "some people" are associating rivers with religion, but the water bodies are "secular" as they pass through people of all caste and religion without any discrimination.
"Some people are associating rivers with religion, but I can say whether it is Ganga or Yamuna, Chambal or any other river, they are secular and socialist because they pass through people of all caste and religions. They do not discriminate anywhere," Akhilesh said at the concluding session of the three-day national convention of Samajwadi Party here. He said all rivers will not be cleaned by only cleaning the Ganga.
"Cleaning only one river or Ganga will not clean all rivers. All rivers have to be made clean. Yamuna is polluted most by Delhi," he said.
In an indirect reference to Swachh Bharat campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2, Akhilesh said people were not following or working on their poll manifesto. "Will anyone tell me was sanitation drive or brooming exercise in anyone's manifesto," he said.
"This is not the first time that a cleanliness drive has been launched in Delhi. If you go through the history, you will know how many political people have done so in the past," he said. "But publicising only one river and leaving others will not clean all rivers. They are not following the manifesto through which they came to power. Their manifesto is of publicity, whereas our manifesto is based on reality," he said.
Attacking the Narendra Modi-led Central government, Akhilesh alleged that while promoting investment in the country, the Centre was also "promoting a hidden agenda". "We have to fight against capitalists and communal forces," he said.
Akhilesh, who is also the state president of Samajwadi Party, said the party had been struggling for the cause of the poor, farmers, youths and minorities for the last 22 years.
The CM said during this period the party made efforts to set its organisation in other states and achieved some success, but it is yet to gain strength like UP.
Akhilesh Yadav said people seek investment by terming India as the biggest market. "We can also say that if India is the biggest market in the world, UP is the biggest market in the country," he said.
Yadav said the SP regime has brought UP "back on the track of development" and is the first government which fulfilled all promises made in the party manifesto. He expressed gratitude towards people and party workers for ensuring SP's victory in the recently-concluded bye-elections on seats which had never been its stronghold. Yadav said since people have reposed their faith in the party, its responsibility has increased.
Highlighting achievements of his government, the Chief Minister said his government was working in all sectors, whether it was road, bridges, health or education.
Claiming that no other state took decisions like those taken by the UP government, he said other parties copied the populist schemes of SP like distribution of laptops. Referring to the Lucknow-Agra Expressway project, he said not a single farmer protested the land acquisition, in fact "they extended support and the government paid them good compensation."
"We are not constructing houses alongside the expressway, instead we will be developing mandis to benefit the farmers. No other state government is doing work like this," he said, adding that his government also increased seats in medical colleges and is providing free treatment for critical diseases.
"But the Centre has removed control on life-saving drugs and now they will become costlier. It will create burden on the governments which want to provide free treatment," he said. Akhilesh alleged that power crisis in the state was due to the Centre as it has not increased UP's quota of either power or coal.
"The party (BJP) got big support from UP, which gave it maximum number of MPs, but what the state got in return. Has its quota of power or coal been increased," he asked. Akhilesh said the state government will extend all possible support to the Centre for development and it was evident from the fact that AIIMS was being set up at Rae Bareli for which free land was provided.
He said the state will demand big projects from the Centre it it did not get them, it will raise questions.
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