india

Updated: Dec 30, 2019 23:22 IST

After his deputy Dinesh Sharma countered Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s attack over the Yogi Adityanath government’s response to anti-citizenship act protests, the chief minister’s office tweeted another warning.

In a press conference, Priyanka Gandhi had pulled the Uttar Pradesh chief minister over his “revenge against protesters” remark.

The Congress general secretary had also referred to Adityanath’s saffron clothes and asked him to follow Hinduism saying there is no place for revenge and violence in that religion.

Hours later, the chief minister’s office tweeted in Hindi with a hashtag “BhagwameinLokKalyan (public welfare in saffron).

“Whoever causes an obstruction in sanyasi’s continuous efforts towards public service and public welfare will have to be punished. How will those who have inherited politics and indulge in the politics of appeasement understand the meaning of public service?” the tweet read.

“Chief minister @myogiadityanath Ji has worn saffron clothes for public service by abandoning everything. He not only wears saffron but also represents it. The saffron clothes are for public welfare and nation-building and Yogi ji walks on that path,” said another tweet.

Before the two tweets from Adityanath’s office, Uttar Pradesh’s deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma also addressed a press conference and accused the Congress general secretary of supporting rioters, who had unleashed violence in various districts of the state during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) earlier this month.

Priyanka Gandhi, Sharma said, had no knowledge of Hinduism, saffron and its tradition and that she was trying to malign it.

“In the name of appeasing minorities, she is supporting rioters, people who pelted stones, damaged public property and rained bullets on the policemen. Later, the police seized bullets and revolvers from them,” Sharma said.

The deputy chief minister alleged that Priyanka Gandhi was disrespecting Hinduism and indulging in vote bank politics. There was a competition between opposition parties to grab the votes of a particular community, he alleged.

“The Congress and the Samajwadi Party are trying to outdo each other in proving themselves as supporters of a ‘special section’… Today, when there is peace in the entire state, these people are trying to surpass each other by spreading propaganda,” he said.

Priyanka Gandhi had referred to the comments made by Adityanath after protests against the citizenship law turned violent in Uttar Pradesh and the chief minister had said that his government will take “revenge” on those involved in the violence by auctioning their property to compensate for the losses.

The protests against CAA had turned violent in many places in the state and more than 20 people were killed—many of them from bullet injuries. Police in the state initially denied that they opened fire at protesters but they admitted later one of the protesters killed in Bijnor town had died in police firing.