Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath said on Friday that he had ended the previous government’s “discrimination” against smashaan in favour of kabristaan, returning to his practice of communal polarisation as soon as the three-day campaign ban imposed on him by the Election Commission for spewing religious hatred ended. “The previous Samajwadi Party government used to give money for the construction of walls of kabristaan (burial grounds) by curtailing the funds for smashaan (crematoriums). Adityanath claimed that some Opposition leaders had “confessed” to him that they were “Babar ki aulad”. The Samajwadi Party has fielded Shafiqur Rahman Barq from Sambhal, while the Congress has nominated Fazle Masood. Adityanath claimed that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had once said that the Muslims had the first right over natural resources, and asserted that BJP governments didn’t believe in such a theory.

Source: The Telegraph April 20, 2019 02:48 UTC