‘No riots, not even tu-tu, main-main in UP during Ram Navami’: Adityanath

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said there is no place for riots in Uttar Pradesh, stressing that the Ram Navami celebrations coinciding with Ramzan went off without any incident of violence — not even an altercation or “tu-tu, main-main”.

His remark at an event Tuesday came against the backdrop of recent cases of communal violence in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat.

Adityanath said the situation during Ram Navami reflected the “new thinking of development” in UP.

He said Ram Navami-related processions were taken out at 800 places in the state that has a population of 25 crore.

It is also the month of Ramzan and “roza-iftar” programmes are also being held, he added. “Nowhere has there been any ‘tu-tu, main-main’ (altercation), leave alone rioting.” “There is no place for ‘danga-phasad’ (rioting),” he said, adding that the state also has no room for anarchy, goodaism and rumour-mongering.

“Uttar Pradesh has proved this on the occasion of Ram Navami, the pious ‘jayanti’ of ‘Maryada Purshottam Shri Ram’,” he said.

No communal riot was reported during Ram Navami in the state. However, the opposition Samajwadi Party has targeted the BJP government over “inaction” after a hate speech against Muslims by a seer, Bajrang Muni Das.

The provocative remarks were allegedly made in Sitapur on the first day of Ram Navami. The seer has been booked, but no arrest made so far.

In the run-up to the assembly polls that brought Adityanath to power for a second consecutive term recently, law and order was projected as one of the main agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Adityanath has repeatedly claimed that while communal clashes were a common feature in UP in the past, no riot had taken place in the state after BJP assumed power in 2017.