Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav has gone all guns blazing against the UP dispensation, branding the FIR against Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati as a blatant attempt at humiliation. The 20-year-old child abuse complaint, now pursued per court order, has ignited a firestorm.
From the SP office in Lucknow, Akhilesh addressed reporters with unbridled outrage. ‘Government’s pulling skeletons from closets to tarnish a saint’s image. Disagree on views? Fine. But this?’ He reflected wryly on quashing an earlier complaint against another saint’s follower.
UP cops have booked the Jyotirmath head, his shishya Swami Mukundanand Brahmachari, and others. Akhilesh wove in the narrative of Magh Mela affront—blocking the seer’s Ganga immersion, compelling icy protests. ‘First such insult to a Shankaracharya; BJP’s credibility in tatters.’
He leveled pre-poll sabotage charges at BJP, reminiscing meat-desecration probes implicating their ranks with imprisonments. ‘Beware edited social media propaganda spreading discord,’ Akhilesh exhorted.
Development took hits too: his Gomti-Hindon revival schemes gathering dust, pipelines from Bundelkhand morphing into ‘corruption lines’ with doubled budgets. A cheeky dig at Yogi’s Japan plans: ‘Japan trip, minus Kyoto.’ Tying into Karna’s saga, he ripped into justice deficits.
‘Hearts have turned against this regime; ballots await,’ Akhilesh proclaimed. His salvo reframes the FIR as political persecution, bolstering SP’s underdog appeal in a polarized state.