Rolling up for the big fight: Akhilesh and Mayawati. BSP supremo Mayawati on Friday taunted the BJP’s ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign, two days after she accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of changing his profile from ‘Chaiwala’ to ‘Chowkidar’ only to get votes in the Lok Sabha elections.
“BJP leaders are scrambling to declare themselves ‘chowkidar’ (watchman) for appeasement but people like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are in a fix on whether they should remain people’s representatives or become ‘chowkidars’,” Mayawati said in a series of tweets.
“They are free to do whatever in any fashion but must be committed to the Constitution and the rule of law… This is what the people of the country want.
“But in the process they (BJP) should not insult country and degenerate Constitutional posts in any way. Let Deputy Chief Minister (Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma), Chief Minister and Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) remain as per the provision of the Constitution. They can do ‘chowkidari’ (job of watchman) after losing the elections,” the four-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh added.
Taking a dig at the government over the alleged theft of Rafale fighter jet deal files, she said that it was worrying that the union government was not allowing the release of data pertaining to employment, growing joblessness, increasing poverty, distress among farmers and labourers, just for the sake of losing votes and safeguarding their image.
“After all these are the issues related to image and vote. Does the country need such type of ‘chowkidar’?” she asked.
The Bahujan Samaj Party, which did not win any seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is contesting the 2019 polls in Uttar Pradesh in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
The BSP is contesting on 38 seats while the SP and the RLD are contesting on 37 and 3 seats in the state, leaving two to the Congress.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav told the Modi government not to pretend to be the Indian Army and said that governments which say they can’t be questioned are dangerous.
“The sacrifices of our armed forces should never be questioned. To ask questions to politicians in a democracy is our fundamental right. This government needs to stop pretending to be the Indian Army,” the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister tweeted.
“Politicians who say they cannot be questioned are dangerous,” he tweeted.
His remarks came soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the opposition of insulting the defence forces and being the “natural habitat of terror apologists” and questioning the armed forces.
Modi’s statement came in response to Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s chief advisor Sam Pitroda’s remarks that incidents like the Pulwama terror attack “happen all the time” and that the United Progressive Alliance government also could have sent planes across the border after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack but “that is not the right approach”.
“Loyal courtier of Congress’ royal dynasty admits what the nation already knew — Congress was unwilling to respond to forces of terror. This is a New India — we will answer terrorists in a language they understand and with interest,” Modi tweeted.