Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath once again brought up the Taliban in his public address and said they received “God’s punishment” when the US Army bombarded them in Afghanistan.
He also claimed that history has been distorted and the nation has been cheated.
While speaking at ‘Samajik Pratinidhi Sammelan’ in Lucknow, Yogi Adityanath recalled the “barbarism” of Taliban when they destroyed the 2,500-year-old statue of Gautam Buddha in Bamiyan, Afghanistan 20 years ago.
“Buddha never imposed war on the world, he will always be the source of inspiration for humanity and the centre of devotion. But no Indian, or anyone supporting peace and harmony anywhere in the world, should forget the scenes of his statue being destroyed by the Taliban,” he said.
Calling the US bombing in Afghanistan a “punishment”, the Uttar Pradesh CM said, “You must have seen that just a few days after that the US dropped bombs there and the Talibanis started getting killed. We had said that God is punishing them for what they did to the statue of Gautam Buddha.”
Shifting focus to Indian history, he said, “How is history distorted! History didn’t call Chandragupta Maurya great, whom did it call great? The one who lost from him. They call Alexander, the great. The nation has been cheated. But historians are silent on it.”
“Because, if the truth comes out before Indians, the society will stand up once again. When society stands up, the nation stands up too. PM Modi is making this nation stand up today. When we talk of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshth Bharat’, these issues are spoken on,” he said concluding his address.
The next elections are scheduled to be held early next year to elect 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
BJP in the 2017 polls, won 312 seats with a vote share of 39.67 per cent. This was followed by a strong electoral performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the BJP won 62 of the state’s 80 parliamentary constituencies.
