They want to teach children Urdu and make them 'maulvis': Yogi Adityanath lashes out at Samajwadi Party

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday lashed out at the Samajwadi Party (SP) for demanding translation of Assembly proceedings in to Urdu, saying that the Akhilesh Yadav-led party wanted to create ‘maulvis’ (Islamic priests).

Adityanath, while speaking in the Assembly on the first day of the state budget session, said that the SP leaders sent their own children to English medium schools but advocated for Urdu in the House.

‘’They want their children to get education in English medium schools but want others’ children to become maulvis,’’ he said.

The CM hailed the decision to allow use of local dialects like Bhojpuri, Braj, Avadhi and Bundeli in the proceedings of the House and said that his government was committed to preserving these languages, which are offshoots of Hindi.

Adityanath’s remarks came after Leader of the Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey objected to the use of English in the Assembly and said that the state government wanted to ‘weaken’ Hindi by encouraging use of English language.

‘’Include Urdu language also if English is allowed,’’ Pandey said.

Earlier, the proceedings of the House got off to a stormy start with the SP members disrupting the address of Governor Anandiben Patel, forcing her to cut short her speech and leave the House after reading out a few portions of the speech.

SP member Atul Pradhan arrived in the House in shackles to register his protest against shackling and handcuffing of Indian deportees from the US. ‘’BJP says India’s status has risen in the world but this is the reality,’’ he said.

The SP members also protested against alleged failure of the government to reveal the number of dead in the stampede in the Maha Kumbh during Mauni Amavasya bathing last month.