Alleging “political demolitions” in the Daal Mandi area of Varanasi in the name of widening of roads, Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav accused the ruling BJP of ‘political conspiracy’.
“How can you forcibly take away shops from the owners if they’re not willing to part with them? You might shift them elsewhere, but how can you ensure customers for them? Daal Mandi wasn’t built in a day. It takes a lifetime to establish a shop,” he asked.
Akhilesh Yadav lamented that when all the countries in the world are preserving their heritage and culture, the BJP people are bent upon demolishing it. “The demolition of the entire market is politically motivated. The shopkeepers are being punished for not supporting the BJP in the elections,” he claimed.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the Samajwadi Party (SP) national president said the BJP’s policies have created such an environment in the state that people are unable to do business openly. “Their policy is to scare people so much that they can’t speak their mind. Does any government do this? Everyone has the right to express his/her views.”
He called the proposed widening of Varanasi’s historic market, Dal Mandi, “narrow-minded” and “political conspiracy”. Daal Mandi is not just a market, but a place of cultural and heritage value, where trade has been going on for generations. He said since the BJP has no plan for “heritage conservation”, it acts only on “political vendetta”. “The saffron party has been losing elections there continuously, hence this action.”
Accusing the government of pressuring the traders through officials, he warned that “the manner in which the demolition took place will be recovered from the officials when time comes.”
Assuring support to the traders of Daal Mandi, he said his party firmly stands with them. “The BJP cannot crush the people of Daal Mandi like lentils. This government is going to fall.”
Stating that the BJP gave a ‘return gift’ of demolition to the traders of Meerut, the SP chief warned the BJP, “Don’t forget the return gift they received from Ayodhya during the Lok Sabha polls after the demolition shops.”
Recalling the BJP’s claim to turn Varanasi into Kyoto, he said they do not know that Kyoto is a historical city in Japan and they have preserved its heritage.
In this context, he recounted how the entire Akbarnagar area in Lucknow was demolished. “Is a riverfront being built over a drain somewhere,” he asked.