Lucknow: In an open letter written to the people of India, Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said the BJP and RSS along with a section of the media are out on a mission to destroy the nation.
Referring to the showdown between Mamata Banerjee and the CBI, Akhilesh said the BJP-led Union government’s ‘attack’ on Bengal through the investigating agency was an attack on the Constitution.
The opening lines of the letter addressed to fellow Indians read, “I write to you because two and a half men – and a media that has been corrupted by their sycophantic portrayal of these men – are on the brink of destroying our nation and everything it stands for.”
“The formula is simple – unfriendly politicians in power are to be embroiled in legal battles, buried under false charges, attacked as anti-national and seditious, and their states set aflame using whatever sectarian methods are at the disposal of this government that dreams of staying in power for 50 years.”
“This is just one of many nakedly political attacks being orchestrated across the country by the two and a half men who run this country. You may well believe we need a strong man in charge of this country and that this type of person can deliver us from corruption and chaos but our Prime Minister is far from a strong man. To quote his own cabinet minister and colleague Mr Nitin Gadkari, ‘One who cannot manage his home cannot manage the country.”
The developments in Bengal are a cause of concern for all citizens, regardless of their political affiliation. I write this letter to my fellow Indians with the hope that we can protect and preserve our constitutional values and the institutions charged with upholding them. pic.twitter.com/0v14IrmONB— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) February 5, 2019
Making repeated references to the ‘two-and-a-half men’ Akhilesh wrote that by attacking Banerjee, they forget her past. “Here is a woman who was dragged from (late Bengal chief minister) Jyoti Basu’s office by the hair for demanding action against rapists and put in jail.”
Further, he urged his fellow countrymen to agree on two things with him. “Regardless of their policies, their religion, their caste or the religion they belong to… the rule of law requires strong institutions, not weak officers who are weaponised against political opponents; and that elections should be fought at the polling booth not using midnight raids, trumped up charges and lies,”
“I call on our judiciary, the CBI, the IAS, the IPS and all our other national institutions to prevail against the constant attacks on them and to fight with integrity. I call on them to stand up for due process so that they do not act as an election agents for a particular party. I call on our fellow Indians who work at these institutions to stand up and be counted and I pray that our fellow Indians who work in the media will speak truth to power without fear or favour.”
In a concluding note, Akhilesh wrote, “You can disagree with me, you cast your vote for the person who can represent you best but please do not allow this motley group made up of two and a half men to erode the very basis of our country.”
The open letter came in the backdrop of not just the CBI-Bengal government tussle, but also the recent raids conducted by the premier agency while probing illegal mining cases during the Samajwadi Party regime.
Soon after, the Enforcement Directorate raided several places in connection with the alleged Rs 1,400 scam over the construction of various memorials and monuments during the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party rule in Uttar Pradesh.
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