A day after UP DGP Prashant Kumar dismissed allegations of caste-based postings in the police force as "baseless and misleading," Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday doubled down on his claims and said the DGP should speak less and allow the chief minister to respond.
"DGP sahab should speak less; at the very least, the chief minister should address this. We have only revealed the state of a few districts so far," Yadav said at a press conference in Lucknow.
"As an opposition party, it is our duty to stay alert and question the injustices being done to PDA (Backward, Dalit, and Minority communities). That's what we're doing — fulfilling our democratic responsibility," he added.
The former chief minister accused the Yogi Adityanath government of systematically discriminating against marginalised communities in public service appointments. He reiterated that the data he cited, including lists of officers posted in the UP Special Task Force (STF) and district-level police stations in Prayagraj, Chitrakoot, Mahoba and Agra, was sourced from official websites.
"These are not numbers I've created. These are from government websites," he said, showing screenshots and printed copies of the official data to the media.
Responding to the state government's rejection of his claims, Yadav questioned why political leaders were hiding behind bureaucrats.
Yadav also accused the state government of manipulating police posting data. "In the list of police stations, non-field stations like those for human trafficking or tourism are being added to artificially inflate the figures," he alleged.
On the broader issue of public employment, Yadav targeted the Agnipath recruitment scheme and the contractual nature of other government jobs.
"The Agniveer scheme does not offer permanent employment. On top of that, there is discrimination against Shiksha Mitras, ASHA workers and Anganwadi staff," he said.
Yadav also expressed concern over rising unemployment and shrinking opportunities in Uttar Pradesh. "...the government keeps coming up with new schemes to hide it (unemployment). People are not getting jobs as per their qualifications. Salaries are low, and women are working in an unsafe environment," he remarked.
He further alleged that political ideology had seeped into education and appointments.
"From the top to the bottom, appointments are being made only if you are affiliated with a certain ideology. Otherwise, you don't get hired," Yadav said.
The SP chief also claimed that under the BJP education is getting privatised at a rapid pace and fees are skyrocketing. It is being done to keep poor children from villages deprived of education, he alleged.
Yadav also said that he was open to correction and urged the media to fact-check the data he presented.