Congress Leader Criticizes Akhilesh Yadav's 'Infiltrator' Remark, Urges Not to Fall into Provocation

Caught in a bind over alliance partner Akhilesh Yadav’s “biggest infiltrator from Uttarakhand” remark, senior Congress leader and former chief minister of the hill state, Harish Rawat, has called the Samajwadi Party chief’s statement “highly unfortunate and absolutely unwanted” and accused the BJP of misusing the word ‘ghuspaithiya’ for political gain. While the Uttarakhand unit of the Congress has maintained silence on the controversy after the BJP demanded an apology from Akhilesh, Rawat, in a post on X, said the word ‘infiltrator’ does not apply in any way to the citizens of the country, and reminded people of the shared history of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. “At the time of the division (Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in November, 2000), whichever region anyone chose as their field of work, whether it is a part of the state of UP or Uttarakhand, that person is a citizen of that state and has the same rights as any other citizen,” Rawat said and added that while making the remark, the image of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath ji must have been on Akhilesh Yadav ’s mind. “Those who remained in Uttarakhand are fully honoured and entitled in Uttarakhand, and those who remained in Uttar Pradesh should be honoured and entitled in Uttar Pradesh. So the word ‘infiltrator’ does not apply in any way to those citizens,” the Congress leader said, adding, “We do not need to fall into their provocation.” A senior Congress leader from Uttarakhand, however, said, “We are maintaining the wait-and- watch situation on this sensitive issue.” The BJP, meanwhile, reminded Akhilesh that his wife Dimple Yadav, who is an MP from Mainpuri in UP, also hails from Uttarakhand. On Sunday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said in Pithoragarh that Akhilesh’s remark was objectionable as he called hardworking and brave people of Uttarakhand “ghuspaithiya” (infiltrators). “Your wife Dimple Yadav is a daughter of Uttarakhand, and you should have considered that at least. Respecting people from a state with which you have such a connection is your duty. You should have taken care of that,” Dhami said, and asked the Congress to publicly say whether it agreed with Akhilesh Yadav’s remark. Samajwadi Party and Congress are part of the INDIA bloc and are set to contest the next year’s UP Assembly elections together.