'Ramcharitmanas' issue raised to derail our development agenda, says Yogi Adityanath in exclusive interview with TOI

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said the 'Ramcharitmanas' issue was being raised by those who wanted to spoil the atmosphere of the society and derail the development agenda of the state government.
Reacting on the issue for the first time in an exclusive interview with TOI, Yogi said: "Those who have nothing to contribute to the state's development; those who had spoiled its image in the past, leaving UP's youth with an identity crisis and its people in a deplorable state, are now restless in 'New UP'."
"They are raking up such useless issues to divert people's attention from development and investment when we are about to hold a global investment summit (GIS)," he said, referring to SP MLC Swami Prasad Maurya's comments, calling some verses of Goswami Tulsidas's book 'anti-dalit'.SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has also backed Maurya, saying that he would ask Yogi the real meaning of the verses referred to by the former UP minister, who quit BJP to join SP just before 2022 state polls.
When asked why he doesn’t explain the real meaning of these verses to them, he said "explaining to those who have no understanding of a dialect and its nuances would be a waste of time". “It's a matter of intellect and understanding. One should have at least enough intellect and rationale to understand in which dialect a word has been written and what is the meaning of that word in a particular place,” he added.
Will he reply to Akhilesh? “I will reply to him when he needs to be replied,” Yogi said.
Going by the roadshows abroad and eight Indian cities, the CM was confident of an unprecedented response to the Global Investment Summit in Lucknow and claimed that 75 per cent of MoU signed during the 2018 GIS had been realised.
He exuded confidence that the GIS would achieve much more than Rs 10 lakh-crore target set initially. "We have crossed that target much earlier during our roadshows. This is one government which does what it says. After the first investors' summit, unlike any other governments, we have been able to hold three groundbreaking events despite two years of Covid pandemic," he said.
One major aspect of investment in the state in the past six years is that it has been evenly spread, unlike in the past when it would remain concentrated in the NCR region, the CM said, adding "this time, special attention has been given to each district. All 75 of them are getting investment proposals and during the summit, they will remain connected."
Claiming a sharp dip in crime graph, he said that this was the reason the image of the state has vastly improved in the past six years and investors are willing to come to UP. Elaborating on the challenges he faced before starting the police commissionerate system, he said "We were of the clear view that there should be one person taking decision during crisis and diffusing it and the system has really worked."
"According to the NCRB data, there has been a sharp dip in the crime graph in the four commissionerate that had been constituted earlier. So, we set up three more commissionerates," he added.
Talking about the much talked about bulldozers, he said "we have taken action within the frame of law against any mafia or criminal who has challenged the government or people’s safety and security. Bulldozer action is for professional criminals and mafia and not for the common man."
He said that UP’s upcoming state budget would represent the expectations of 25 crore people of the state.
"It will certainly have the glimpse of the efforts that have been put in the past four years towards making UP one trillion-dollar economy as has been the wish of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he added.