Farmers from UP have also joined the protests against the new farm laws. How do you view their demand for repeal of the laws?
UP is the largest agrarian state of the country, with the largest number of farmers. The opposition is misleading the farmers by spreading rumours about the scrapping of MSP (minimum support price) and mandi system. They are fighting the battle of middlemen and brokers, and very few farmers of the state are involved in the protests.
Farmers of our state are happy with the care taken by the state to safeguard their interest. Previously, farmers were being used as vote banks but since assuming power, my government has been working on ensuring ways to double farmers’ income. We have reduced the mandi tax and have strengthened government procurement. We know that only if the state’s rural economy is strong, the state can become strong. We are ensuring MSP to them. We waived farmer loans worth ₹36,000 crore, made record cane price payment of more than ₹1,12,000 crore between 2017-2020, transferred more than ₹60,000 crore to farmers for paddy and wheat procurement, and more than 2.35 crore farmers have received ₹22,594 crore under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme in UP.
The new state law against religious conversions has raised concern over excessive police powers and interference in people’s personal affairs of people, and has led to allegations that it is aimed at Muslims…
The ordinance was passed as in recent times a lot of cases were being registered where the women complained that they were being forced to change their religion and, on refusing to convert, were being harassed. We realised that this situation had to be dealt with in order to protect the interest of women and minors and ensure safety and justice to them by giving them the right to complaint against any deceit and harassment. It is a duly constituted law and the law per se is not discriminatory. The law isn’t a means to stop any interfaith marriages from happening but rather to protect the marriages whereby the woman has been duped or lied to by the man into an interfaith marriage on the pretext of love.
Opposition parties claim that the law and order situation in UP is bad, and they accuse you of acting as a Thakur leader against Brahmins…
I am a democratically elected leader of the state and the welfare of every citizen in this state is our government’s priority. Our government is focused on ensuring development, social welfare and law and order. Our government inherited a helpless police. The places that should have been “safe zones” were the “safari zones” of criminals. We have worked tirelessly to bring law and order back on track and revive the faith of people in it. As a result, today either the criminals are fleeing the state or are in prison. We have put an end to the goonda raj we inherited from their government and have ensured better policing.
This effort of the UP government has received widespread support and praise throughout the country. The Punjab and Haryana High Court also appreciated the better law and order in UP and said that stringent laws should be enforced against criminals on the lines of UP. We are committed to ensuring safety and dignity of women in our state and have recently launched the ‘Mission Shakti’ initiative.
What will be your main plank in the 2022 assembly elections?
We will go back to the people showcasing our development work and improvement in law and order of the state. We are now one of the top investment destinations in the country, and tech giants like Samsung are leaving China to set up their plants in UP. We will be providing financial incentives to Samsung to set up a display factory in the region which is expected to cost about $655 million. It will help boost the Make in India initiative, which aims to project India as a manufacturing hub. Samsung already has the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturing plant in our state.
In order to speed up the pace of industrialisation, we are going to organise the UP Global Investors Summit. Today, UP is the first choice of big entrepreneurs and ranks second nationally when it comes to ease of doing business. Before 2017, only two UP cities were connected to the air grid — our government has added seven cities and is working on building 12 new airports. When my government came to power, UP had two functional expressways stretching 302 km, completed over nine years. But by the time I complete my five years in office, we will finish work on three expressways of 700 km and start work on UP’s longest, 594-km Ganga Expressway. Soon, UP will have India’s largest Film City.