THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The people of Uttar Pradesh want development and social harmony and Kerala is the model to follow, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a tweet on Thursday, responding to a ‘beware of Kerala’ slur by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
In a video that surfaced on Twitter on Thursday morning, Yogi was seen warning UP voters to exercise their franchise with utmost care, lest UP turn into another “Kashmir, Bengal or Kerala”. He did not elaborate.
Vijayan responded with a tweet by 1 pm: ``If UP turns into Kerala as @myogiadityanath fears, it will enjoy the best education, health services, social welfare, living standards and have a harmonious society in which people won’t be murdered in the name of religion and caste. That's what the people of UP would want''. An hour later, Vijayan tweeted the same message in Hindi, tagging Yogi Adityanath.
Later, Vijayan issued a press note in which he said he really wished that people in UP would cast their vote with “due carelessness” so that UP would be able to achieve Kerala-like development. “Kerala emerged first in the Niti Ayog report on sustainable development (in 2020-2021). The infant mortality rate of Kerala (6%) is similar to that of the US. 97.9% is the literacy rate of women in Kerala, 98.1% of homes in Kerala have toilet facilities. It's strange to note that Yogi Adityanath is trying to put such a state in bad light'', he said. According to Vijayan, BJP is running a smear campaign against Kerala because it is not confident of facing the electorate in the name of development.
Yogi's message referring to Kerala and other non-BJP states elicited strong reaction from Kerala opposition leader V D Satheesan too. ``Dear #UP, vote to be like Kerala. Choose plurality, harmony, inclusive development to medieval bigotry. Keralites, Bengalis and Kashmiris are also proud Indians'', the Congress leader tweeted. Shashi Tharoor, MP, said, “UP should be so lucky!! Kashmir's beauty, Bengal's culture & Kerala's education would do wonders for the place. UP's wonderful: pity about its govt'', he tweeted.
‘Yogi didn’t mean to malign Kerala’
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury retweeted Vijayan’s message and added, “If every state in India becomes like Kerala, India would be lucky”. “The sooner the BJP is discharged from power, the sooner every citizen of UP and India will get respect, rights, betterment of their condition, work, and peace”, he tweeted.
BJP state president K Surendran came out in support of Yogi. He said that Yogi did not mean to malign Kerala but was only hinting at the encouragement that radical Islamic outfits such as Popular Front get in Kerala. “The principal secretary of the UP chief minister had not gone to jail in connection with any gold smuggling case. No communal riot took place (in UP) in the last five years. All rioters were sent to jail. TPR never crossed 20%. Neither the UP CM nor any of his ministers have gone to USA for medical treatment. His only fault is that he never ventured to hold a press meet at 6pm every day”, Surendran said.
Congress leader files plaint
Youth Congress national spokesman Mohamed Hashim filed complaints before the Election Commission and Thrissur police commissioner on Thursday against Yogi’s statement. It is clear that the statement is humiliating my state and was made with an intent to spread animosity among people who live in harmony. It was made to tarnish the secular culture of Kerala, its development, and also to discriminate against Keralites, he said in his complaint to ECI.
In the complaint to the commissioner, Hashim alleged that Yogi’s statement was likely to cause animosity among the people living in Kerala and UP.
