The promulgation of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 did not go down well with the Samajwadi Party as it announced to oppose the new law terming it as anti-people.
The SP said it would oppose the state government’s bill on religious conversions when placed in the assembly for passage.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said in a press conference here on Saturday that the new ordinance was against the people and it had been brought just to harass the people.
”Our party workers and leaders will oppose this ordinance and it will be opposed in the state assembly and legislative council too,” he announced.
Terming that the Bharatiya Janata Party governments at the Centre and in UP were anti-people; Yadav said SP would go before the people to make them aware about the ideology and policies of the Samajwadi Party.
”The farmers are being tortured and the entire markets have been ruined by the BJP. The SP is supporting the farmers and will stand with them in their fight against the government,” he said.
The former chief minister of UP maintained that the BJP had always said that it would double the income of the farmers but now it was trying everything to crush them.
Talking about the Yogi Adityanath government in UP, Yadav said it was targeting the opposition leader and the harassment of SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan and his family was a glaring example of this.
“The only fault of Azam Khan is that he had made a beautiful and big university in Rampur. He was implicated by the government. Now the government is demolishing the building of the people as their maps are not approved. But can the BJP leaders show whether the building plan of their building was approved by the Urban Development Authority,” questioned.
Earlier, several leaders from other parties joined the SP in the presence of Akhilesh Yadav.
The leaders who joined the SP are former Aligarh MP and Congress leader Brajendra Singh, ex-MLA from Aligarh Zamirullah Khan, former Minority Commission chairman Chaudhary Liyaqat and several BSP leaders.