LUCKNOW: Without taking names, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday likened Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav‘s family members to characters in the Mahabharata.
“Kaka, chacha, mama, naana… (uncle, maternal uncle, maternal grandfather…) You must have heard of them either in the Mahabharata or between 2012 and 2017 (during the Samajwadi Party’s rule),” said chief minister Adityanath.
“There were some clans in which different people were allotted charge of recruitments in different departments – some to uncles, some to brothers and others to nephews – and all this actually used to happen,” he added.
“They are the same characters of the Mahabharata who have taken rebirth. The way they impeded India’s progress by launching Mahabharata (the war), they blocked the Uttar Pradesh development again,” the chief minister further said.
Adityanath made the remarks while addressing newly-appointed 271 block education officers in Lok Bhawan that houses the chief minister’s office among others.
Attacking the previous government, Adityanath said, “When the merit and honesty are put at discount and recruitments are made on the strength of caste and money, the state has to suffer.”
“Did you too have to get recommendations from ministers, politicians or officials for the appointments?” the chief minister suddenly asked the newly appointed officials, apparently seeking to demonstrate that the corruption and nepotism in government recruitments are things of the past.
“There have been no complaints regarding recruitments. We have given full freedom so that the recruitment process is completely transparent and honest and there is no discrimination,” he asserted.
Adityanath recalled that after he became the UP chief minister, people used to ask him how will the state be run.
“I told them UP has immense potential. Only leadership is needed (to run it). The system is the same and UP has been transformed,” he said.