They don't want to visit Ayodhya fearing loss of vote bank, Yogi Adityanath attacks Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday hit out at Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav for declining the invitation of the Speaker to visit Ayodhya "due to the fear of losing vote bank".
"They do not want to visit Ayodhya fearing that it will hurt their vote bank," said Adityanath.
The Samajwadi Party has declined the invitation of Speaker Satish Mahana to all members of the House for visiting Ram temple in Ayodhya together on February 11.
Earlier in his address, the chief minister said Yadav has problems with the fact that India has become the fifth largest economy in the world.
"He (Yadav) also has a problem that Uttar Pradesh becomes number one," he said.
When Yadav interjected, Adityanath said, without taking any names, "You have already denied the offer of the Speaker. You do not want to go to Ayodhya and you often go to Britain and you know who books your tickets."
Hitting at the Samajwadi Party, he said, "You could not do anything even in Mathura and Vrindavan. The Samajwadi Party government put up locks in Kashi and you locked a park behind the 'janamsthan' in Mathura. Our government opened both the locks," he said.
Prayers at a cellar in the Gyanvapi mosque were stopped during the Mulayam Singh government in 1993. The locks of the cellar were opened recently and prayers were allowed on the directions of a local Varanasi court.
The chief minister also accused Yadav of impoverishing the state in his tenure.
"In the five years of your tenure you gave a failure state but we made a secure state. You looted millions and we will give the state one trillion," he said, addressing Yadav in the UP Legislative Assembly.
His statement was followed by a round of applause from the treasury benches. Yadav was also present when Adityanath was speaking in the House.
Adityanath welcomed the bestowing of Bharat Ratna to Chaudhary Charan Singh, saying, "The development work done by Chaudhary Charan Singh as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and as prime minister in the country is memorable. His honour is the honour of the farmers of the country."
Charan Singh brought in revenue changes and it is because of his work that farmers are central to the policies of the government today, he said.
Adityanath took a jibe at the fissures between alliance partners SP and RLD, whose president Jayant Singh, the grandson of Charan Singh, has apparently been warming up to the BJP since the announcement of the award.
He said, "I hoped that when the leader of the opposition was speaking he would remember Chaudhary Charan Singh. But the crack could not be fixed."
The chief minister said, "When we presented our first budget in 2017, we dedicated it to Lord Ram. It is a matter of luck that when my government has presented its eighth budget, a grand Ram temple has been constructed. This budget is also dedicated to Lord Ram."
We have tried to realise the dream of Ram Rajya in this budget."
"It may be possible that the leader of the opposition has a problem with the size of the budget. In comparison to 2012-2013, the budget is thrice the size and is double in comparison to the budget presented in 2016-17," said the chief minister.
He said his government has doubled the GDP of the state in the last seven years. Earlier UP contributed only eight per cent but now it contributes 9.2 per cent to the country's economy and aims to increase this in the next five years.
"UP is no longer a Bimaru state. We are a revenue surplus state. This has been done without imposing any new tax. The rates of diesel and petrol are the lowest in UP. And this is a reflection of Ram Rajya," Adityanath said.
He recited a couplet from the Ramcharitmanas to highlight the kind of taxation in Ram Rajya and likened it to the policy followed by his government.
"We managed to increase the revenue by reducing tax theft and plugging leakages of revenue without imposing any new tax," said the chief minister.
"UP is second in numbers of filers of Income-tax return which reflects that per capita income in the state has improved," he said.
The unemployment rate in the state has gone down from 19 per cent from before 2017 and 2.4 per cent as of now. It is a result of improved investment opportunities in UP, Adityanath said.
"UP had the potential to become number one (state). The youth had talent before (too) but there was no vision and effort on the part of the then leadership. Their priority was not the youth, women or the poor but their own," said Adityanath, hitting at the previous government of Samajwadi Party.
In order to hit at the previous government, Adityanath cited a couplet of Tuslidas to assert his point that one who does not make an effort does not achieve anything.
"We are headed towards one district one medical college. We have controlled encephalitis," he added.
"We went to Ayodhya before the Supreme Court verdict (of 2019). We went there today and will continue to go there," said the chif minister while listing development projects for religious places including Varanasi, Mathura, Prayagraj and others in the budget.
"I have stayed overnight in Bijnor. Akhilesh Yadav, I am sure, had never stayed there fearing that chacha will take his chair," Adityanath quipped.
"I only want to tell the leader of the opposition that in the last seven years, due to the efforts made by the double engine government, six crore people have out of poverty in the state," said Adityanath.
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Israel is criticised after it bars Gaza aid to pressure Hamas to accept new ceasefire proposal
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Tel Aviv (AP): Israel faced sharp criticism as it stopped the entry of all food and other supplies into Gaza and warned of “additional consequences” for Hamas if a fragile ceasefire isn't extended.
Mediators Egypt and Qatar on Sunday accused Israel of violating humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon.
The ceasefire's first phase saw a surge in humanitarian aid after months of growing hunger. Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the next phase Sunday hours after its first phase had ended and called Israel's decision to cut off aid “a war crime and a blatant attack” on a truce that took a year of negotiations before taking hold in January.
In the second phase, Hamas could release dozens of remaining hostages in return for an Israeli pullout from Gaza and a lasting ceasefire. Negotiations on the second phase were meant to start a month ago but haven't begun.
Israel said Sunday that a new US proposal calls for extending the ceasefire's first phase through Ramadan — the Muslim holy month that began over the weekend — and the Jewish Passover holiday, which ends April 20.
Under that proposal, Hamas would release half the hostages on the first day and the rest when an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Hamas currently hold 59 hostages, 35 of them believed to be dead.
The US had no immediate comment. Netanyahu said Israel is fully coordinated with the Trump administration and the ceasefire will only continue as long as Hamas keeps releasing hostages.
Saying the ceasefire has saved countless lives, the International Committee of the Red Cross said “any unravelling of the forward momentum created over the last six weeks risks plunging people back into despair.”
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called Israel's decision “alarming," noting that international humanitarian law makes clear that aid access must be allowed.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged all parties to make every effort to prevent a return to hostilities in Gaza, and called for humanitarian aid to flow back into Gaza immediately and for the release of all hostages, said spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
Five non-governmental groups asked Israel's Supreme Court for an interim order barring the state from preventing aid from entering Gaza, claiming the move violates Israel's obligations under international law: “These obligations cannot be condition on political considerations.”
The war has left most of Gaza's population of over 2 million dependent on international aid. About 600 aid trucks had entered daily since the ceasefire began on Jan 19, easing fears of famine raised by international experts.
But residents said prices shot up as word of the closure spread.
From the heavily destroyed Jabaliya urban refugee camp, Fayza Nassar said the closure would worsen dire conditions.
“There will be famine and chaos,” she said.
Hamas warned that any attempt to delay or cancel the ceasefire agreement would have “humanitarian consequences” for the hostages. The only way to free them is through the existing deal, the group said.
Families of hostages again pressed Israel's government.
“Postponing the negotiation on the deal for everyone's (release) can't happen," Lishay Miran-Lavi, wife of hostage Omri Miran, said in Tel Aviv. “Hostages don't have time to wait for an ideal deal.”
Israel was accused of blocking aid throughout the war
Israel imposed a siege on Gaza in the war's opening days and only eased it under US pressure. UN agencies and aid groups accused Israel of not facilitating enough aid during 15 months of war.
The International Criminal Court said there was reason to believe Israel had used “starvation as a method of warfare” when it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last year. The allegation is also central to South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.
Israel has denied the accusations. It says it has allowed in enough aid and blamed shortages on what it called the UN's inability to distribute it. It also accused Hamas of siphoning off aid — an allegation that Netanyahu repeated Sunday.
Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch, said Israel as an occupying power has an “absolute duty” to facilitate humanitarian aid under the Geneva Conventions, and called Israel's decision “a resumption of the war-crime starvation strategy” that led to the ICC warrant.
Israel's offensive has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It says more than half of those killed were women and children. It does not specify how many of the dead were combatants.
Israeli bombardment pounded large areas of Gaza to rubble and displaced some 90% of the population.
