Uttar Pradesh Assembly was witness to a bitter face-off between Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav over the issue of law and order in the House on Tuesday, wherein Yogi slammed the former Uttar Pradesh CM over the remark, ‘Ladke hai, galti ho jaati hai’.
Replying to adjournment notice over law and order moved by Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav during Zero Hour in the Assembly, the chief minister said, “This is a BJP government and here it is not said that ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘mistakes happen sometimes’. Such a comment is inexcusable. The BJP government is sensitive and committed to providing security and protecting the honour of women and strict action is being taken against offenders targeting women/girls as per the government’s ‘Zero Tolerance Policy’ against crime.”
Yogi referred to SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav’s infamous speech in Moradabad while campaigning for 2014 Lok Sabha polls wherein he had said, “Ladke hain, galti ho jaati hai.” Yadav’s outrageous remark was in reference to death sentence awarded to three gang rape accused by a court in Mumbai.
The CM further said, “Any kind of crime is unforgivable and the government is taking strict action against criminals, especially those committing crimes against women.’’
In the adjournment notice, Akhilesh Yadav referred to crimes against women in Prayagraj, Chandauli, Siddharthnagar and Lalitpur, claiming that maximum crimes against women were committed in UP. Referring to a rape allegedly by an SHO in Lalitpur, the SP chief said that the case was registered only after the Chief Minister visted the district. Akhilesh reminded Yogi that at a meeting in Lalitpur he had said, “He will set officers ‘right’ and asked local BJP leaders to stop acting as power brokers.Yogi ji was not aware of corruption in bureaucracy in the past five years.”
Yogi Adityanath retorted saying, “You support every criminal who spreads anarchy in the state and indulges in hooliganism.”
Appreciating the government, Yogi said, “In the past five years, better law and order has prevailed. We got wide public support. To stop harassment of girls/ women, our government set up anti-Romeo squads in 2017 and 218 Fast Track Courts and separate POCSO courts were established in 2018.”
Claiming a reduction in crime under his government, Yogi said that had the Opposition members listened to the governor's address, things would have been clearer to them. “When I reply to the governor's address, you will clearly know how much crime has come down. There was no riot in the past five years. Between 2012 and 2017, there were more than 700 incidents of riots but between 2017 and 2022, there was no riot, no curfew,” the chief minister asserted.
Yogi highlighted that properties of criminals worth more than Rs 2,000 crore were confiscated across Uttar Pradesh. “So, whether it is a matter of women’s safety or the safety of 25 crore citizens, all these are top priorities for the BJP government,” he said.
Citing the BJP numbers in the assembly as direct evidence, the chief minister said, “Overwhelming public support during the recent UP Assembly elections was due to better law and order in the state in the last five years. I laud the spirit with which people and half of the population have supported us. We are saying with full commitment that strict action against crime and criminals will continue without any bias.’’
Referring to removal of loudspeakers from the mosques, Yogi said, “Over lakh loudspeakers were removed. This could have been done by the previous Samajwadi party government also, they lacked will power’. Moreover every decision of the Samajwadi Party is guided by vote bank politics.”
“For the first time in many years, Alvida namaz in the month of Ramzan were not held on the streets in Uttar Pradesh. There was no chaos on streets on the occasion of Eid. and festivals were celebrated in a peaceful manner. There were riots during Hanuman Janmotsav celebration in other states, but Uttar Pradesh remained incident free,’’ the chief minister said.