Akhilesh Yadav sparks row over Gyanvapi, says 'put stone & flag, it becomes a temple'

Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday made a controversial statement on the Gyanvapi row. He said that in Hinduism if you put a stone and flag nearby then it becomes a temple. He also questioned how details of the survey come out.

"Whose responsibility it was to do the survey, how did those things come out? This is the tradition of Hinduism, put a stone somewhere, put a red flag, a temple is built under the Peepal tree," Yadav said.

On Tuesday, he said that Gyanvapi-like incidents are deliberately stirred by BJP or by their aides in order to create a divide in society. "Fuel and food amenities are getting expensive. They don't have answers on inflation & unemployment. BJP has a hate calendar to bring up such issues until elections," said Akhilesh Yadav.

'Bulldozers only creating fear, not serving justice'

Further attacking the Yogi Adityanath government, the SP chief claimed that the bulldozer is only to create fear and not for serving justice. His remarks were in connection to the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl by a Station House Officer (SHO) in Lalitpur and the death of a girl by alleged thrashing by police in Chandauli.

"Bulldozer is to only create fear and not for serving justice. If the government wants to run a bulldozer then run it on Lalitpur police station where a 13-year-old was raped by SHO. A girl died in Chandauli after police thrashing. Will any action be taken?" Akhilesh asked.

He said that a mother, who resisted her son's detention, was shot dead by police. "Police are making up stories. The anarchy is increasing," he said in Ayodhya.

The 50-year-old woman died of injuries she suffered in the clash that ensued after the police team reached the Islamnagar village to conduct a raid in relation to alleged cow slaughter.

Earlier in the day, the former chief minister demanded a high court-monitored probe into the death of a woman during a clash between locals and a police team. He also met the family of the woman.