Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Monday launched a tirade at the Opposition over the codeine cough syrup controversy and hurled a ‘2 namoone’ jibe, pointed towards two ‘young’ leaders, one in Delhi and the other in Lucknow.
The Chief Minister, speaking in the Legislative Assembly, rejected any reports of death in the state due to codeine syrup and also vowed to take bulldozer action against those involved in its manufacture and illegal trade.
“No deaths have occurred from codeine cough syrup in Uttar Pradesh… There are two namoones inside the country, one sitting in Delhi and one in Lucknow. Whenever any discussion happens in the country, they immediately flee the country,” he said, taking a swipe at the Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav, without taking names.
The Chief Minister added that strict action would be taken under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act against all those involved in illegal trade and also drew a link between the syrup’s licence with the then SP government.
“The biggest wholesaler, who was first caught by the STF, was issued a licence by the Samajwadi Party in 2016,” he pointed out.
CM Yogi’s remarks in the Assembly came on the back of Opposition leaders staging a protest inside and outside the Assembly, demanding a discussion on the cough syrup matter.
The SP chief was, however, quick to respond to the Chief Minister’s diatribe and hit back with a twist.
Akhilesh Yadav interpreted CM Yogi’s remarks as “self-acceptance of two power centres” in the BJP and projected it as a fight between the two.
Insinuating that there was a power tussle between the BJP’s central leadership and the Yogi government, he said that it has come out in the open and the latter should be “wary of offending” the former.
“Self-Acceptance! No one expected the Delhi-Lucknow feud to escalate to this point. People holding constitutional positions should at least maintain some public decorum among themselves and not cross the bounds of propriety. BJP folks should not bring their party’s internal squabbles out to the crossroads. If someone takes offence somewhere, you might have to backtrack,” he wrote in a post on X.
