New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday continued to draw on Shaheen Bagh, biryani and Pakistan during his election campaign for the BJP in Delhi. Though the Aam Aadmi Party had earlier complained to the Election Commission against him for “hate speech”, no action has been initiated thus far.During an election rally at Bindapur in Uttam Nagar on Monday, he associated the ruling AAP with Pakistan, saying Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal becomes “happy when Pakistan is happy”.He alleged that AAP criticised reading down of Article 370 and that the views of Pakistan PM Imran Khan, Kejriwal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were similar and that they spoke in the “same language”. However, AAP and Kejriwal had welcomed the move to dilute Article 370 and revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.With Shaheen Bagh being the major focal point on which BJP is focussing its campaign on, Adityanath again raised the issue. He said the sit-in demonstration against the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), for which a section of the Delhi-Noida road has been blocked by protesters, has been causing “hardship to people”.He then tried to give the issue a communal tone by saying, “Kejriwal is not providing any facilities to the people of Delhi, lekin Shaheen Bagh mein baithe hue logon ko biryani khilane ka kaam Arvind Kejriwal kar rahe hain. Yeh vyakti woh har kaam karega jo desh ke khilaaf hoga (He is feeding biryani to protesters at Shaheen Bagh. He will do everything that goes against the country).” He did not provide any evidence to support his claim or explain how anti-CAA protests are “against the country”.Ever since he began addressing BJP’s election rallies in Delhi on February 1, Adityanath has been regularly taking the same line about Shaheen Bagh, Pakistan and biryani. In his earlier speeches too, Adityanath had alleged that the Kejriwal government was “sponsoring” the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh and “feeding them (the protesters) biryani”.Also Read: Delhi Polls, Hate Speech and BJP’s Most Reckless Communal Campaign YetThis had forced AAP to file a complaint with the Election Commission. The party’s national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had even termed Adityanath “mentally sick” and said he “requires treatment”.He had also pointed out that the UP CM’s record as an administrator was nothing to write about as a large number of children died due to lack of proper facilities in a government hospital in Gorakhpur.In its complaint to the EC, AAP demanded that Adityanath be “banned from campaigning in Delhi” and that an FIR be lodged against him for his “divisive speeches”.Following the complaint on February 2, Singh had also stated that it was “very strange that the EC doesn’t act against Yogi Adityanath” and had warned that “if the commission doesn’t give time to meet the AAP delegates by 12 pm on Monday, we will launch a dharna at the EC office”. However, the party is yet to follow up on this.
