Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday, 21 February, addressed an election rally in Uttar Pradesh and retorted to to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "terrorists choosing cycles" barb, saying that an "insult to the cycle is an insult to the entire nation".
Taking to Twitter, the leader wrote in Hindi, "The cycle connects the farmers to their fields, laying the foundation of prosperity. The cycle takes our daughters to school, rising above social restrictions, it races ahead, untouched by inflation; the cycle is the common man's ride, the pride of rural India; an insult to the cycle is an insult to the entire nation."
A day after a special court convicted 49 people for the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, Modi on Sunday had disparaged the SP, saying that the Akhilesh-Yadav party was sympathetic towards terrorists.
Alluding to SP's party symbol – a cycle – he stated, "In the initial blasts, the bombs were kept on cycles…I wonder why they (terrorists) opted cycles," news agency PTI quoted the PM as saying.
Remembering the blasts, the PM had reportedly expressed at a public event in Hardoi, "Today, I am referring to this because some political parties have gone soft on terrorists. The blasts were executed in two ways. The first one was in the city at 50-60 places, and then after two hours, a blast took place in a vehicle in a hospital, as relatives, officials and leaders would be going there."
(With inputs from PTI and NDTV.)
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