File photo: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
BJP today hit out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav after he dared the Centre to ban beef export, calling his comments "unfortunate" and accused him of "dividing" people on religious lines to cover up his "failure" in ensuring law and order in the state.
The BJP and the Samajwadi Party are involved in a blame game over the killing of a man by a mob in Dadri, who was accused by villagers of eating beef. The BJP charged Mr Yadav with giving "communal colour" to the crime by raking up unnecessary issues to "hide his failures".
The SP leader had earlier targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, saying those who spoke against "pink revolution" should ban beef exports as they were now in power and alleged that they wanted to disturb the secular ethos of the country by raising such issues.
"The tragic incident has again highlighted the state government's law and order failure and it is unfortunate that it is raking up unnecessary issues and blaming the Centre to cover up its failures. By talking about pink revolution, he is giving communal colour to the issue," BJP secretary and its media department head Shrikant Sharma said.
Citing a report on violence in the state, which he said was tabled in the state assembly, Mr Sharma asked if the chief minister will blame the Modi government and BJP for them.
"The report noted that there were 25 incidents of women being raped by cops. At 622 places, cops were attacked by SP leaders. Will Akhilesh Yadav blame the Centre for this? He should focus on law and order and if he cannot, then he should better resign," he said, attacking Yadav.
Mr Sharma alleged that SP leaders have been involved in several crimes with communal overtones as he said several leaders belonging to the party besides to BSP and Congress were chargesheeted in the Muzaffarnagar riot cases but no action was taken against them.
As far as Mr Yadav's dig at the Centre over beef export was concerned, he said Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had already clarified on the issue.
In a series of tweets, she said Mr Yadav should know that "the export of beef (meat of cow, oxen and calf) is prohibited" as per Meat Export Policy of the Government of India.
Sitharaman said preservation of cattle or enacting law on cow slaughter does not fall under the purview of the central government.
The bone in meat, carcass of buffalo (both male and female) is also prohibited from exports, she added.