Lucknow: People are out on the streets because they have rejected the BJP, which kept them preoccupied with the struggle for livelihood so that it could carry out its communal politics, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday. Jobs will only be created when the BJP is ousted, he said.
Yadav's remarks come amid protests by aspirants in Prayagraj over the decision of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) to conduct the Review Officer (RO) and Assistant Review Officer (ARO) and Provincial Civil Service (PCS) preliminary exams on different dates. "If the BJP had governed with the same intensity with which it is running the bulldozer of injustice, today its members wouldn't have to hide in their homes, fearing the anger of students," he said.
"For years, either vacancies are not released, or the examination process is delayed. The BJP has distracted students from their studies and forced them to protest in the streets," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister wrote in a post on X. Aspirants laid siege to the UPPSC headquarters in Prayagraj on Monday, even as a large posse of police personnel tried to disperse them.
Policemen deployed in and around the office tried to stop the students from reaching gate number two but the large crowd jostled its way through, raising slogans against the Commission. "They got lathi charged, and jobs are still not in their agenda. We don't want a useless government," Yadav said, and claimed that the educated, employed middle class was no longer swayed "emotionally by the BJP."
"Now even the parents, who were once victims of the BJP's false propaganda on WhatsApp groups, have realised how the BJP exploited them emotionally to gain and maintain its power," he said in the post. "Now these people are also rejecting the BJP's divisive communal politics and embracing 'positive politics that unites.' No one is willing to remain a mental slave of the BJP anymore," he asserted.
"Jobs will come only when the BJP goes," he added. The politician allied with the INDIA bloc also decried the Yogi Adityanath government's "bulldozer politics," saying the backlash it caused has made BJP leaders cower in their homes. BJP flags have been removed from the houses, shops, establishments, and vehicles of its members, he claimed.
"The time for BJP's negative politics and false narratives is over," he said. UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said students' concerns were "serious and important." "All competent officials should listen to the demands of the students sensitively and find a quick solution. Ensure that the precious time of the students is not spent in agitation but in their preparation. The pending cases in the court should also be resolved quickly so that the future of any student does not remain in the dark," Maurya said in a post on X.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati wondered if the state was so hard up that it could not hold exams on a same date. "Stopping paper leaks and reliability of exams are important issues, for which conducting exams at one time is necessary. The government should pay attention to this," she said on X.
The Dalit leader also slammed the government's attitude towards students who, she said, are facing the brunt of poverty, unemployment and inflation. "The sooner the government completes the recruitment process for all the backlogs of vacancies, the better. People are in dire need of employment," Mayawati said.
