Akhilesh slams Assam CM for his statement on 'Miyan'

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has said holding one community responsible for government's "failure" on price rise was the latest manifestation of BJP's "divisive politics".

He took strong exception to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who reportedly held Muslims responsible for the rising prices of vegetables, saying "Miyan (Muslims) vendors are responsible for the rise in prices of vegetables in the city. Most of the vegetable vendors who are increasing the price, belong to the Miyan community."

Akhilesh said, "A BJP chief minister holding a particular community responsible for rising prices of vegetables shows a narrow mentality at play and is highly condemnable. The BJP looks for scapegoats to blame them for the failures of its governments. Divisive politics does not last long. A time will come when those dividing the people will be scattered."

Giving a spin to BJP's slogan of 'Apda mein avsar' (Making the best out of a crisis), Akhilesh said the Uttar Pradesh government is one of its kind when such a situation occurs.

"It seems that a crisis like flood has given government officials an opportunity to indulge in large-scale corruption. The government is showing that the funds are being spent heavily to send out relief to people affected from floods. But the fact is that there has been hardly any relief and rescue work on ground. There is no power supply in flood-hit areas," he said in a statement.

The SP chief said prior to floods, the Yogi government had spent crores of rupees in filling up potholes on roads across the state.

"People in PM's constituency Varanasi are facing waterlogging to the extent that water has entered their houses. The government has promised to transform Varanasi and develop it at par with Kyoto (Japanese city) but the city reminds one of Venice instead in the monsoon," he said.

The SP chief also took to twitter to post news reports of waterlogging in Gorakhpur, the home district of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

He wrote: "When this is the condition of the VVIP district, one can imagine the state of affairs in the rest of the state," he said.