Members of the Pahadi Army, a regional social organisation , burnt an effigy of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani on Sunday, protesting against his remark referring to people from Uttarakhand as “infiltrators” in Uttar Pradesh.
Those from Uttarakhand,” he said, news agency ANI reported. “Any statement hurting the community’s sentiments would be opposed democratically. He warned that the protest could intensify in the coming days if Yadav did not apologise. “That infiltrators have entered the contracting business. Or that infiltrators have entered the news channels. And that infiltrators have entered through investments in these channels. And then, who are the biggest infiltrators in UP?
Pahadi Army president Harish Rawat said the hill community was deeply conscious of its culture, traditions and self-respect. The term ‘infiltrators’ is generally associated with militants and terrorists,” he said, demanding an apology from Yadav to the people of Uttarakhand.
He alleged that the Congress had responded cautiously to Yadav’s remarks for electoral gains in Uttarakhand.
The MLA said that his comments reflected his personal views and should not be interpreted as the official position of the Congress party. Commenting on the Congress’s response, Tiwari said the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were “cut from the same cloth” as both were part of the I-N-D-I-A alliance. Tiwari said Congress leaders should have taken a firm and unequivocal stand in defence of the state’s honour rather than using measured language for political considerations.
He urged Yadav to clarify the context of his statement, adding that if the remarks were intended to label people from Uttarakhand as infiltrators, he strongly condemned them.
Reacting to the recent remark, Haldwani MLA Sumit Hridayesh said the people of Uttarakhand have a strong sense of self-respect. Millions of people from the state live and work across the country, contributing to its development through their hard work and talent, he said. “It was inappropriate to describe any Indian citizen as an ‘infiltrator’ merely because they lived or worked in another state,” Hridayesh said.
