Clothes Alone Don't Make One Yogi: SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav

Ahead of by-polls, SP's Akhilesh Yadav said his party will have a strategy to counter every move of the BJP, which has "no credibility left."

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said a person "is not a yogi by what he wears but what he speaks". The dig, apparently aimed at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, was made on the birthday of 'Khajanchi,' a boy born to a woman standing in a queue to exchange banknotes after demonetisation. The boy was named so by Yadav.

"Countdown has started for those who do encounters. Their days in the seat of power are numbered," Yadav said at the programme. Yadav, without naming anyone, said people with cunning tend to become bitter in speech.

"You can see that their language has changed, their way of thinking and understanding have also changed. They are so scared that they are considering the officers as their officials, but the officials and the government people probably do not know that the public is no longer with them. The public is against the BJP. When the public is against them, what will the officials do?" he said.

On the upcoming by-polls, the SP chief said his party will have a strategy to counter every move of the BJP, which has "no credibility left." "A person who does not consider anyone to be bigger than him, what kind of a yogi is he? If there is anybody who is setting the seers against each other, it's the people in the government," the former UP chief minister said, apparently targeting Adityanath.

"It is said that the greater a saint is, the less he speaks, and when he speaks, it is for public welfare. Here, everything is the opposite. The kind of language which is being used... A person is not a yogi by what he wears, but by what he speaks," he said. Yadav said the older 'Khajanchi,' gets, the more he will remind people of the failure of demonetisation.

"And the truth is, demonetisation emerged as the biggest corruption in the economic history of the world. Demonetisation has proved to be the ocean of BJP's corruption. It was a cosmetic exercise, and it has remained so," he said.

Yadav likened the impact of demonetisation to that of a "slow poison" which afflicted farmers, labourers, the middle and salaried class, small traders and street vendors.

"Demonetisation will become the reason for 'votebandi' for the BJP. Demonetisation brought recession and shut down many businesses and factories. Now this will lock down BJP's power," he said. Yadav also derided BJP's 'Amrit Kaal' catchphrase to say that the party's tenure at the Centre has only brought the country ruin.

"There has been a tradition of sages here. But today those who should be soft-spoken have become verbose and harsh-spoken. Those who should speak the truth have become false preachers. Those who should dispel fearlessness are spreading fear. Those who should do charity have become tyrants.

"Those whose job should be to run the government are running bulldozers. The government should be a symbol of development but has become a symbol of destruction," he said. "So many women or daughters had never come to the Chief Minister's residence to commit suicide as much they have come under this government," he added.

He also hit out at the state government over the wait for fertilisers for farmers and termed the BJP, which governs the state, drunk on power. "It is working against the Constitution and democracy. A bulldozer cannot be a symbol of justice but this government is running bulldozers in the arrogance of power," he said.

"The BJP government is not running on 'Samvidhan' (Constitution) but on 'Manvidhan' (arbitrary rule)," Yadav added.