Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath Tuesday criticised the previous UPA government over its way to tackle terrorism and asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi what was his "relation with Ishrat Jahan", who was killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat Police in 2004.
"What is your relation with Ishrat Jahan, a terrorist? When Rahul Gandhi met the US ambassador, he told him that the people of India, and not Jaish-e-Mohammad, are a bigger threat to our country," alleged Adityanath.
Attacking Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, he said, "They (Rahul and Priyanka) go to temples only during elections. They do not have time to visit holy sites if elections are not around."
"When they learned that over 24 crore people took part in Kumbh mela (held in Prayagraj recently), the new generation (of the Congress) also dropped by," he said.
Adityanath was apparently referring to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's recently concluded Ganga Yatra from Prayagraj to Varanasi during which she visited several temples.
He said Gujarat had first exposed Rahul Gandhi when he had visited the Somnath temple in 2017.
"During that visit, a temple priest asked Rahul to sit properly, as his sitting posture resembled someone offering Namaz," the UP chief minister said.
Referring to Priyanka Gandhi upcoming visit to Ayodhya, the BJP leader alleged that Congress leaders who do not believe in the existence of Lord Ram are now talking about visiting his birth place.
"Some new Congress leaders (Priyanka) are planning to visit Ayodhya. When the supreme court was hearing the case of Ram Setu, the past Congress government had told the court that Lord Ram never existed. Now, people who do not even believe in the existence of Lord Ram are talking about visiting Ayodhya," he said.
He also attacked the Congress over its promise to roll out the minimum income guarantee scheme for the poor, if voted back to power.
"Rahul Gandhi now says that his party will eradicate poverty from the country. The Congress should first answer that why they could not do so while being in power for 55 years. The Congress can only increase poverty by making false promises," he said.
Adityanath said unlike Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Opposition leaders lacked compassion for the poor.
"When your (Rahul Gandhi's) 'abba jaan' was PM, he used to say that out of Rs 100 sent by the Centre, only Rs 10 reaches the poor. That was Rajiv Gandhi's pain. But, nothing was done to correct that situation. We brought in technology to tackle that issue. Now the entire sum of Rs 100 reaches the poor," he said.
Adityanath praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the 2016 cross-border surgical strikes and the Balakot air strike, which was conducted in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack.
"Terrorism and anarchy was widespread before 2014. Many terror attacks took place during the UPA rule. China used to transgress into Indian territory. Pakistan was beheading our soldiers. But when people asked that party to respond, they used to say that we will think about it, we might do it. But nothing happened," he said.
Adityanath said armed forced had actually carried out two surgical strikes---"one on separatists in the North East region and another in PoK after Uri attack".
He alleged that Congress leaders use abusive language for PM Modi while at the same time they show their respect for terrorists by suffixing "jee" to their names.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)