'Was Once Mistaken For Rahul Gandhi By Student': Akhilesh Yadav Hits Out At UP Govt Over Education

Addressing the Uttar Pradesh assembly during a discussion on the budget, Akhilesh Yadav revealed why a student at a government school mistook him for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

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New Delhi: Denouncing the quality of education in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said one day a student at a government school mistook him for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Addressing the Uttar Pradesh assembly during a discussion on the budget, Akhilesh said UP ranked fourth from the bottom in the education index, PTI reported.

"This is the level of education in the state that gave so many prime ministers," Yadav said. He further said that even Narendra Modi was PM because of the state. PM Modi represents the Varanasi constituency in Lok Sabha.

"I had once gone to a primary school where a child did not recognise me. When I asked who I was, the child said Rahul Gandhi," PTI quoted Yadav as saying. Yadav's remarks saw members of the treasury benches bursting into laughter.

"They are not sad about the level of education in the state, but because I took the name of the Congress leader," Yadav further said.

Attacking the Yogi Adityanath-led government, Yadav said that instead of "ease of doing business", there was an "ease of doing crime" in the state.

"There is no ease of doing business in the state, but an ease of doing crime. BJP men are taking law in their hands," the SP chief said.

Accusing the BJP of favouring big businesses, Yadav said, "This budget is all smoke and mirrors. BJP has a new policy in operation -- 'one nation, one capitalist'."

Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna presented the annual budget for 2022-23 in the Assembly on May 26.

Akhilesh said that even though the government claimed it to be the biggest budget, no heed was paid to farmers, unemployed, women and cattle in the budget. He said the BJP had promised to double the income of farmers by 2022 but it was yet to be fulfilled.

He also launched a scathing attack on BJP leaders for trying to teach him "samajwad" (socialism). "If I am socialist, what's wrong with it? You are also a socialist. The money which is being distributed to farmers is also done on a socialist principle. Whatever you are giving to the girls is also based on the same principle," PTI quoted Akhilesh as saying.

"If you raise a question mark on my being socialist then you are also not democratic. You don't trust democracy, and if you are not 'samajwadi', you also cannot be secular," he said.

Akhilesh further said the condition of the housing sector was in a bad shape due to wrong policies of the government.