Six months after taking over the reins of Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday released a ‘white paper’ here, documenting the functioning of his government so far.
However, far from being a dossier of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s achievements, it read like a negative critique of the previous Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) governments, with lists of acts of misgovernance and corruption over the last 14 years, from 2003-2017. Mulayam Singh, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav were Chief Ministers during this period.
Mr. Adityanath released the 22-page booklet featuring 25 topics hours after he was sworn in as an MLC, as mandated, along with four other ministers.
The document accuses the previous governments of being “insensitive” to the people’s mandate, encouraging corrupt and anti-social elements, and carrying out scams after scams.
The BJP government “inherited corruption, crime, goondagardi and lawlessness from the previous governments”, and due to the poor law and order, investors and traders were not able to operate their businesses in Uttar Pradesh, it reads.
“On average, there were two riots per week under previous governments,” the document says, mentioning communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly and other districts.
Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary retaliated by saying that within just six months of the BJP coming to power, the State had slowed down in the development race.