Ashoknagar (Madhya Pradesh), May 4: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday came down heavily on the Congress party saying that the grand old party wanted to implement Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's Jizya tax. Jizya tax was a tax paid by non-Muslims minorities to rulers in Muslim states.
CM Yogi made the remark while addressing a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh's Ashoknagar district on Saturday. He arrived here to campaign in support of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Guna parliamentary seat Jyotiraditya Scindia for Lok Sabha elections 2024.
Addressing the public, CM Yogi said, "You must have seen the Congress manifesto and you must have heard the name of Aurangzeb, a cruel king of the Mughal dynasty. Even a civilised Muslim family does not name their son Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb was the most cruel Mughal king. Aurangzeb had imposed a tax named Jizya tax. Today, Congress also talks about the Jizya tax in its manifesto. This Jaziya tax is the same as the inheritance tax which they (Congress) talked about."
He further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about respecting the inheritance while on the other hand Congress said in its manifesto that they would implement inheritance tax.
"For the property earned by your (public) ancestors, Rahul Gandhi has said that they will conduct a survey and x-ray. After that these people (Congress) will take half the property and tell you (public) that this is inheritance tax. Congress wants to implement Aurangzeb's Jizya tax. Will you accept it? No Indian will accept this," he added.
The UP CM further added that the Congress party would also try to dent (referring to reduce) the OBC and Scheduled Castes (SC) reservation and the party mentioned it in its manifesto.
"There will be an attempt to dent the reservation of OBCs and the reservation of Scheduled Castes. The Congress has mentioned about it in its manifesto. The Congress government in Karnataka and earlier in Andhra Pradesh has made a dent in OBC reservation," he added.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Pawan Khera hit back on CM Yogi's remark saying did he (Yogi) read it in the manifesto, if he did then he should tell the page number where it was written.
"Has he (Yogi Adityanath) read it? If he has read it, then tell the page number on which page it is written or he also speaks lies like PM Modi. You are a Yogi, and Yogis cannot lie. We respect Yogis and touch their feet to know that these people speak the truth. What happened to him," the Congress leader said.
Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh are being conducted in four phases. The first phase of polling was held on April 19 and the second phase was concluded on April 26. The next two phases will be conducted on May 7 and May 13. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.
