Lucknow (UP), Sep 12 (PTI) In an apparent swipe at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said press conferences have turned from “dialogue” to a “monologue”.
In a post in Hindi on X, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said press conferences should instead be called “press monologues” if only statements were to be made and journalists had no right to ask questions.
“Those who keep changing names should now change the name of ‘press conference’ to ‘press monologue’, because when only a statement has to be given and the press has no right to ask questions, what meaning does the word ‘conference’ have without dialogue?” he asked, without taking any name.
Earlier in the day, Adityanath addressed a press conference, along with state BJP chief and Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, to announce a month-long “Seva Sankalp Abhiyan” from September 17 to October 17 to mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 25 years in public service.
Yadav also posted a video on X purportedly showing a woman journalist asking Adityanath for a question as the chief minister was leaving after addressing the press conference at the state headquarters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here.
“The truth is that there is a flood of questions in Uttar Pradesh, but they have no answers,” Yadav said, adding that turning away and leaving the field could also be called running away.
He accused the BJP-led government of practising “discrimination” in governance and “one-sided rhetoric” at press conferences.
“What next, will they also say that they are not in the mood to listen to questions?” he asked.
At the press meet, Adityanath outlined various programmes to be organised across the state under the campaign, while Chaudhary highlighted the achievements of the Modi government at the Centre and the BJP-led government in Uttar Pradesh. PTI CDN RC
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