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Updated: Aug 26, 2019 21:09 IST

Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday attacked the BJP-led central government saying it was trying to redefine democracy through the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax department.

“One should learn institutional control from the BJP. No government has done it earlier. ED, CBI and fear--this is new democracy,” Akhilesh said at a press conference where a senior BSP leader and former minister Ghura Lal joined the SP along with his supporters.

Citing the example of the action by the state government against senior SP leader Azam Khan over land grab charges in Rampur, he said, “In every corner of Lucknow, illegal construction is going on but no action is being taken. But a person who is running an educational institution is being framed for political reasons.”

The former chief minister attacked the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh over law and order in the state. “Uttar Pradesh has become Hatya Pradesh (murder state),” he said. “The chief minister should carry on like this. It will help the SP come back to power again with a majority.”

Akhilesh went on to ridicule Adityanath’s claim of zero-tolerance against crime.

“The state government had harped a lot on zero-tolerance policy on crime, but incidents of murder, loot, rape and fake encounters have increased. UP has got the highest number of notices from the National Human Rights Commission. In Etah, a woman was threatened that her husband would be killed in an encounter and she was raped. In Bulandshahr, a person accused of killing a policeman was garlanded and given a warm reception on his release.”

He also trained his guns on the Centre over the state of the country’s economy.

“Now the economy of the neighbouring countries is getting better than India’s. The Bangladeshi currency is getting stronger while India’s is getting weaker. Compare what was the ratio of Indian rupee to the dollar when the Modi government came to power, and see what it has become now”.

Akhilesh criticised the Adityanath government’s recent investors’ summit saying, “The investment summit has not led to anything on the ground. Industry leaders indeed came, but no investments followed. The government had claimed that 70 lakh jobs would be created. But where are the jobs? Where will the investments come from when the banks are in the red? Investments are not coming to India, how will it come to UP?”

On the Centre nullifying the provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, he said over 20 days had passed since the move but people there were still “imprisoned” in their houses. “What has been happening to the people there will one day happen to people here.”

He said removing of some ministers from Adityanath’s cabinet and bringing change in the portfolios of others indicate that BJP ministers were engaged in corruption.