Opposition parties have announced to boycott the Special Sesion of UP legislature to comemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the opposition parties did not attend a meeting of Business Advisory Committee of the Assembly convened by Speaker Hriday Naryan Dikshit.
The 36-hour non-stop session, announced by the Yogi Adityanath government, will deliberate and discuss a 17-point agenda of the United Nations General Assembly’s sustainable development goals.
The special session will commence with the address by Governor Anandiben Patel to both Houses at 11 am on October 2. Later, Chief Minister and Speaker of the Assembly will address the House.
The Samajwadi Party was the first to announce boycot of the Special Session and instead, party legislators led by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav will sit under Gandhi statue at GPO Park in Hazratganj and sing ‘Ramdhun’ and bhajans.
‘’The BJP is presenting a distorted view of all values that Gandhiji stood for. Actions of the BJP government at the Centre and UP like spreading hate on caste and religious lines, religion-based polarisation and mob lynching go against the Gandhian philosophy,’’ said senior SP leader and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary.
‘’If the BJP is so sincere for Gandhian values then they should start cleaning their toilets as done by Gandhi in his lifetime,’’ he said.
Claiming to expose the “facade created by the BJP” in the guise of commemorating Gandhi’s birth anniversary, Chaudhary said: “A BJP leader recently said that if the revolver of Nathuram Godse was auctioned, the response would determine who has more followers, Gandhi or Godse’’.
“The Special Session organised by the BJP-led government is nothing but tokenism. Leaders like Bhopal BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Thakur openly glorified Godse and the BJP brass did nothing to punish her for the irresponsible and anti-national statement,’’ he added.
The Congress will hold a demonstration in Lucknow on October 2 to protest against Yogi government’s “patronage” to Swami Chinmayanand, who is accused of raping a law student in Shahjahanpur.
Congress legislature party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu said on Tuesday that there was no reason to attend the Special Session when the ruling party was protecting a criminal and harassing a woman, violating the ideology of Gandhi.
The BSP has also decided to boycott the session. Undeterred with the opposition stance, the ruling BJP has directed its members to be present at the 36-hour session.
Principal Secretary, Assembly, Pradip Kumar Dubey said all preparations had been completed for the unprecedented event.
Speaker Hriday Narain Dikshit said all parties had not only consented but also assured full cooperation for the success of the session during an all-party meeting in September. “It was only after the meeting that the government decided to convene the session which was later adopted by the cabinet and approved by the Governor,” he said.
