Ten days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath brought up the issue of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan and blamed a “section of people” for supporting the terror group in India without naming any party, a two-minute long video naming Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and attacking him for “supporting Samajwadi Party leaders who have a Talibani mindset.” was tweeted by the BJP.
Uttar Pradesh will see a crucial state election in less than a year and the BJP is hoping to retain power after five years of governance under Yogi Adityanath. The video has particularly shown the scenes of the chaos at Kabul airport amid evacuations after the Taliban takeover . The video accuses leaders of Akhilesh Yadav’s party by a Hindi voiceover of standing with those who are ideologically inclined to the Taliban.
On August 19, CM Yogi Adityanath in his address at the Uttar Pradesh assembly said that ” People who are supporting Taliban and their brutal barbarism over women and children must be exposed before the society.” His remarks came after a sedition case was filed against a Samajwadi Party MP and two others in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district over comments that seemed to compare the Taliban to India’s freedom fighters.
On August 18, Samajwadi Party leader Shafiqur Rahman Barq who is the Lok Sabha MP from Sambhal told to the reporters that the Taliban “want Afghanistan to be free” and “want to run their own country”. He added “They want to be free and that’s their personal matter, how can we interfere?” he quoted. When India was occupied by the British, “the entire country fought for independence”, he told PTI.
On Saturday when asked about the SP stand related to the Taliban in a summit by a private news channel Akhilesh said that “The people of Afghanistan should be safe, that is the biggest priority.”
Barq later denied the remarks over him and said his statement was misinterpreted. No reactions were recorded by Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party related to the video that was tweeted by the BJP party. Akhilesh Yadav and his party avoided getting drawn in the questions and avoid the topic related to the Taliban, but he said that it is up to the Government of India to frame a comprehensive response to developing situations in Afghanistan.
अखिलेश जी… जनता आपके कारनामे देख रही है
तालिबानी सोच वाले सपा के बेशर्म नेताओं का समर्थन क्यों कर रहे हैं ? pic.twitter.com/ps6hK86LIK
— BJP Uttar Pradesh (@BJP4UP) August 28, 2021
