Yogi Adityanath on Saturday distributed plots of land to 1,031 families who had arrived in Lakhimpur Kheri from Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1947 and 1971, claiming that the BJP respected them unlike other parties, including the Trinamool, setting the tone for his campaign for the Bengal polls from Sunday.
According to BJP sources, Adityanath would start campaigning for the BJP from Bishnupur in Bengal’s Bankura district and address over 20 rallies in the state, which will vote in two phases on April 23 and 29.
Addressing a public meeting in Mohammadi in Lakhimpur Kheri, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said: “The Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool remain silent when Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains are attacked and killed in Pakistan and Bangladesh. They didn’t respect those who fled to India with hope. We, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are giving them property rights and respect.
“Today, I handed over land ownership rights to 1,031 families who had fled Pakistan in 1947 and Bangladesh during the India-Pakistan war in 1971 and reached Lakhimpur Kheri. We gave them 542 hectares. A total of 6,500 such families are living in the Terai districts of Uttar Pradesh. We will soon allot land to all of them because Modiji has given them this right under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).”
He said a colony in Mohammadi, where these Bengali-speaking people had settled, was named Mianpur by the Congress, though there was not a single Muslim there.
“We will change its name to Rabindra Nagar after Rabindra Nath Tagore, who gave us the national anthem,” he said.
Local sources said the ratio of migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh is 50:50, and only 50 per cent of them speak Bengali.
“Bengal is the land of spiritualism. This is the reason that we have Vande Mataram, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, as our national song,” Adityanath said, trying to strike a chord with the Bengal voters.
“Uttar Pradesh has welcomed these Bengali-speaking people. They will no longer be called Bangladeshis. Unfortunately, the Congress, the SP and the Trinamool had opposed the CAA to prevent us from giving respect to those who were victims of the Partition and the 1971 war. These parties continued protesting for many weeks in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, but it was the Prime Minister’s willpower that helped us bring the law to benefit Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain migrants,” he told the gathering.
The CAA, which was passed by Parliament in 2019, grants citizenship rights to persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014.
Adityanath said Pakistan, which was divided in 1971, was “again on the verge of partition because they are hurting the Hindus and Sikhs there”.
“The Hindus and Sikhs are also being burnt in Bangladesh, but the Congress, the SP and the Trinamool are silent,” he added.
Adityanath inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of projects worth ₹1,300 crore from Mohammadi and Palia Kalan, where he also addressed a rally. He also distributed land plots to 4,356 families from the Tharu tribe who had migrated to Palia Kalan from Mewar during the Mughal period.
Adityanath indicated that his government would rechristen Lakhimpur Kheri, too. “We should remember that Lakhimpur Kheri was known as Lakshmipur in the past because of its richness,” he said.
