krishna: ‘Lord Krishna in my dreams…’: Not the first time SP has tried its own outreach | India News

NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday created a flutter when he mentioned that Lord Krishna comes in his dreams and tells him that he would usher in Ram Rajya in the state.
The statement is significant as it comes when an aggressive BJP is claiming credit for the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Kashi-Vishwanath temple corridor and also talking of a grand temple in Mathura.
The semantics of Akhilesh Yadav’s statement are quite interesting. Not only, it seeks to establish him as a devotee of Lord Krishna, he is also projected as someone who will usher in Ram Rajya. The statement also comes at a time when the BJP has tried to corner Akhilesh Yadav over his comment about Mohammed Ali Jinnah being a freedom fighter.
However, this is not the first time that the Samajwadi Party (SP) has tried its own unique outreach towards the Hindu population in a bid to counter not just the BJP’s Hindutva’s push.
Krishna worshipped across India: In November 2017, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had also created a flutter in political circles with a statement about Lord Krishna. The senior Yadav had said that that Ram was worshiped only in North India while Krishna is revered across India – from north to south.
“Theek hai, hamare adarsh Ram bhi hain aur uttar Bharat Ram ka bahut aadar hai. Lekin Krishna ko uttar se lekar dakshin tak sab mante hain (It’s true that Lord Rama is our idol and is revered in North India. But Lord Krishna is worshipped across India – -from north to south,” the SP founder had reportedly said at a function in Ghaziabad.
Statue of Lord Krishna in native Saifai: The comment by Mulayam Singh Yadav had come shortly after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had announced that he would install a 50-foot bronze statue of Lord Krishna in his native village Saifai. Lord Krishna is highly revered, especially among the Yadav community, and there was a spate of media reports that the SP was moving towards Krishna at a time the BJP was leading the campaign for a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Temple for Lord Vishnu: Not just a statue of Lord Krishan, Akhilesh Yadav in 2018 had also announced that he will build a giant Vishnu Temple — on the pattern of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat — in a 2000-acre land in Etawah if Samajwadi Party comes to power.
Akhilesh Yadav’s comment came after Uttar Pradesh deputy CM Keshav Maurya’s claimed that the Centre might bring in a legislation for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Akhilesh’s announcement was seen as an attempt to counter BJP. Lord Ram as well as Lord Krishna are considered to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
Visit to Lord Parshuram Temple: On Sunday, Akhilesh Yadav had also visited a temple dedicated to Lord Parshuram, who is highly revered among the Brahmin community. According to some reports, the SP leader also said that his party could declare Parshuram Jayanti as a public holiday.
Yogi’s barb: The latest statement by Akhilesh Yadav about Lord Krishna in his dreams, however, received a sharp taunt from chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Adityanath said that Lord Krishan must have chided Akhilesh Yadav for not doing work which the BJP was now doing. Adityanath accused opposition leaders of changing colour. The BJP has repeatedly attacked the SP over the incident in which ‘karsewaks’ were fired upon in Ayodhya.