Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath criticised Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav's "distorted casteist thinking", after the latter said Colonel Sofiya Qureshi was targeted by a BJP minister as she is a Muslim but Wing Commander Vyomika Singh was spared thinking she was Rajput.
Both Colonel Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh have addressed multiple pressers on Operation Sindoor, giving details on India's military action on terror bases in Pakistan since May 7.
Mr Yadav, while criticising the BJP's country-wide Tiranga Yatra and its aim of electoral gains, hit out at Madhya Pradesh minister Vijay Shah on Colonel Qureshi. "One of their ministers abused Colonel Qureshi. The high court has ordered registration of a case against him again. But he did not know who Vyomika Singh was and neither did he know about Air Marshal AK Bharti, otherwise these people would have abused them too.. Vyomika Singh is a Jatav from Haryana and Air Marshal Bharti is a Yadav from Purnia. So all three were from PDA (Picchda, dalit, Alpsankhyak or Backwards, dalits and minorities). One was abused as she was a Muslim. The other was spared thinking that she was a Rajput," he said.
Mr Adityanath said Mr Yadav's act of "binding a brave daughter within the ambit of caste" shows the party's narrow-mindedness and is an insult to the army's valour. "The uniform of the army is not seen through a 'casteist lens'. Every soldier of the Indian army performs 'national duty' and is not a representative of any caste or religion," he said in a post on X.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati attacked both the BJP and Samajwadi Party, criticising the statements judging the army on the basis of religion and caste "unfair". "The mistake that the BJP minister made in this regard, the same senior SP leader has also made today, which is shameful and condemnable," she wrote in a post in Hindi.
Mr Shah had commented on Colonel Qureshi at a public address in Indore's Raikunda village on May 12. The comments were widely perceived as communal, gendered and derogatory. In his speech, Mr Shah referenced the recent Pakistan-linked terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, in which 26 people were killed, and attempted to draw a contrast with the Indian military's response. He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had "sent their [terrorists'] sister" -- an apparent reference to Qureshi -- aboard a military aircraft to retaliate against those responsible.
"They [terrorists] made our sisters widows, so Modi ji sent a sister of their community to strip them and teach them a lesson," Mr Shah had said. "They undressed our Hindu brothers before killing them. We responded by sending their own sister to hit them in their houses."
The Supreme Court sharply rebuked Mr Shah with Chief Justice of India BR Gavai described the minister's comments as unacceptable and insensitive, stating that individuals occupying constitutional positions should exercise restraint in speech.
Chief Justice Gavai questioned the conduct of Mr Shah by asking, "What sort of comments are you making? You should show some sense of sensibility. Go and apologise in High Court."
