Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav on Friday hit back at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who slammed the Rajya Sabha MP over his comment on Wing Commander Vyomika Singh.
In a post on X, Yadav said the UP CM reacted without hearing the full statement and was using the matter for politics.
On Thursday, Yadav triggered a row by alleging that the Madhya Pradesh minister targeted Army officer Colonel Sofia Qureshi because she is Muslim while sparing Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, assuming she is Rajput.
Responding to Adityanath, Yadav explained that his comment was meant to show how caste and religion influence law enforcement, government postings, and public unions in Uttar Pradesh.
"I had said in a programme yesterday that Colonel Sofia was abused because she was identified by her religion, Foreign Secretary Mistry was abused, if these abusers had come to know that Vyomika Singh is Jatav and Air Marshal Avadhesh Bharti is Yadav, then they would not have refrained from abusing these officers also," Yadav said.
Wing Commander Vyomika Singh along with Colonel Sofia Qureshi and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri became household names after they led the intial press breifings following Operation Sindoor.
Ram Gopal Yadav Triggers Row
The row erupted on Thursday after Yadav made the casteist remark during a public event in Moradabad. He claimed that MP BJP Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah targeted Qureshi based on her religion, while officers like Vyomika Singh and Air Marshal AK Bharti were not criticised due to their castes.
"All three were from PDA (Picchda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak — backwards, Dalits, minorities). One was abused because she was Muslim, another was spared thinking she was Rajput, and the third was not known. Now that it's in the papers, they're thinking about what to do."
UP CM Yogi Adityanath slammed the SP MP for his comment calling it disrespectful to the armed forces.
"The uniform of the army is not seen through 'casteist glasses'. Every soldier of the Indian Army performs 'Rashtradharma' and is not a representative of any caste or religion," Adityanath wrote on X.