In a face-off with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on law and order, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday recalled SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's "boys will be boys" remark on rape.
Opposing the death penalty for rape, Akhilesh Yadav's father and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had purportedly said at a rally,"Ladke, ladke hain. Galti ho jati hai (boys will be boys. Mistakes happen sometimes)".
Replying to Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav's attack on the crime against women, the CM said, "This is the government of the BJP. Here it's not said that boys will be boys. Mistakes happen sometimes."
Any kind of crime is "unforgivable" and the government is taking strict action against criminals, especially those committing crime against women, he claimed.
During the zero hour, Yadav referred to the crime against women in Allahabad, Chandauli, Siddharthnagar and Lalitpur, claiming that maximum crimes against women were committed in UP.
Referring to a girl's rape allegedly by an SHO in Lalitpur, he said the case was registered only after the CM went there.
Yadav added that the CM at a meeting said he will set "officers right" and asked them to leave acting like "middlemen". The CM wasn't aware of it in the past five years, said Yadav in a jibe at Adityanath.
Adityanath retorted to Yadav saying, "You support every criminal who spreads anarchy in the state and practise hooliganism."
Appreciating his government, he said in the past five years, better law and order have prevailed. "We got wide public support," he said referring to the BJP numbers in the House.
"For crimes related to women, our government constituted anti-Romeo squads in 2017 and along with it in 2018, POCSO courts were established," he said.
Claiming a reduction in crime under his government, Adityanath said that had the Opposition members listened to the Governor's address, things would have been clear to them.
"When I will reply to the Governor's address, you will clearly know how much crime has come down," he said.
"There was no riot in the past five years. Between 2012 and 2017, there were more than 700 incidents of riots but between 2017 and 2022, there was no riot, no curfew," he added.
Adityanath said property worth more than Rs 2,000 crore of criminals was confiscated in UP.
"So, whether it is a matter of women's safety or the safety of 25 crore citizens, all these are on a priority for the government," he said.