Lucknow, Apr 13 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday lashed out at the opposition and said “violence is being instigated” following the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

Reacting strongly to the violence in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district over the Bill, the chief minister said that “three Hindus were dragged out of their homes and killed”.

“Who are all these? These are the same Dalits, deprived and poor who are going to get the most benefit from this land,” he added.

Adityanath said it is surprising that this is the “same country in which lakhs of acres of land has been occupied in the name of Waqf”.

“They (occupiers) have no papers, no revenue records and ever since the (Waqf) Amendment Bill was passed and action is being taken, violence is being instigated for it,” he added.

Earlier on Saturday, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan said that the Centre was closely monitoring the violence in Murshidabad district and asked the state to keep a close watch on other sensitive areas while instituting adequate measures to ensure normalcy at the earliest.

Three people, including a father-son duo, were killed in Muslim-majority Murshidabad district following clashes allegedly linked to ongoing protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

The chief minister also lashed out at the opposition for their alleged silence over the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh.

Adityanath said the BJP is committed to protect every Hindu and that is why the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was enacted.

“If for some reason any Sikh, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist from Pakistan, Bangladesh comes to India after suffering from atrocities there, then he will get Indian citizenship,” said Adityanath.

“It was opposed by the people of Congress and SP, who work to mislead. These are the same parties, which snatch the rights of the exploited and deprived people at the ground level,” he added.

Accusing the opposition of adopting propaganda, the chief minister while referring to a book written three years ago by Rajya Sabha MP and former Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Brij Lal said that he discussed two great Dalit warriors in his book.

Adityanath said it is mentioned in the book that Babasaheb Ambedkar had said that our beginning and end will be as an Indian.

“On one side was Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and on the other side was Yogendra Nath Mandal… Yogendra Nath Mandal had supported Pakistan but he could not live there even for a year. Bangladeshi Hindus are still suffering the punishment for the actions of Yogendra Nath Mandal,” said Adityanath.

“All the tortured and oppressed Hindus living in Bangladesh are Dalits. Neither Congress, nor Samajwadi Party, nor Mamata Banerjee raised their voice in their favour. Only the Bharatiya Janata Party raised their voice in their favour,” he added.

Taking potshots at the Congress, the chief minister alleged that the grand old party denied Dr B R Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, a memorial and did not allow his last rites to take place in the national capital.

“First they (apparently pointing towards the Congress) made Babasaheb Ambedkar lose the elections. After his ‘mahaparinirvaan’, they did not allow his last rites to be performed in Delhi. The Congress also did not allow his memorial to come up,” said Adityanath.

“In 1976, they brought an amendment in the Constitution and inserted a word against which Babasaheb had himself given arguments,” he added addressing a workshop here held under ‘Bharat Ratna’ Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samman Samaroh.

“Until we present the correct facts before people, those who have been misleading people to serve their own political interests will continue to exploit the Dalits and the deprived by misleading them and creating chaos in the country,” said Adityanath.

“Such people will keep climbing the political ladder. They will keep depriving the Dalits and poor. Therefore, the BJP state workshop is being organised here with an action plan,” he added.

Giving details of the campaign launched to remember Dr Ambedkar on the eve of his birth anniversary, the chief minister said, “Wherever there is a statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar, wherever there is a park in his name, today the workers of the BJP, public representatives and government officials are joining the special cleanliness program there.” Adityanath said the BJP governments have in the last 10 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership “worked to provide benefits of the government’s scheme to every deprived, every Dalit, every poor, every woman, every farmer”.

“Our problem is that we are not able to repeat those things again and again, we try for some time to reach the people who have got the facility and then that effort stops,” he said, adding this will be expanded in the campaign.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said, who was also present on the occasion, said Baba Saheb gave the right to vote to the deprived and backward. PTI AR NAV AS AS AS