Lucknow, February 13 Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday criticized the Samajwadi Party (SP), citing two instances to allege administrative "chaos" and "lack of seriousness" in the education department during its tenure.
Speaking in the Assembly, Adityanath said that during the SP government, he witnessed a situation where a minister for secondary education was not recognized by a department official.
Recalling the incident, the chief minister said that when he was a Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur and had gone to a railway station, some state officials were present there. "At the same time, the secondary education minister of the SP government also arrived. I was surprised to see that the official did not even stand up to greet the minister," he said.
"When I asked an officer whether he had come with the minister, the officer replied, 'Which minister?' When I pointed towards the minister, he himself said he had not visited the secretariat for six months and perhaps that was why the official did not recognize him," Adityanath said, targeting the opposition benches.
In another instance, the chief minister referred to an event held on the martyrdom day of freedom fighter Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil. He alleged that an education minister of the SP government, who had been invited to the programme, was unaware of the occasion.
"When I was told that it was Bismil's martyrdom day, the minister reportedly confused him with Bismillah Khan and remarked that Bismillah Khan had recently received an award and questioned how he could have been hanged," Adityanath said, breaking into laughter.
He further claimed that when someone from the audience corrected the minister by stating that the reference was to Ram Prasad Bismil and not Bismillah Khan, the minister allegedly accused the person of being a BJP supporter.
"Andher Nagri, Chaupat Raja - this is what it was," the chief minister said, adding that such incidents reflected the state of the education system at the time. "If the system was in such a condition, what could students be expected to do?" he asked.
Asserting that the incidents were not fictional, Adityanath said he had evidence to substantiate his claims as he went on to list the work done by his government to improve the education infrastructure in the state.