Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav sparked controversy. He mentioned castes of IAF officers Vyomika Singh and A K Bharti. He attacked BJP, accusing them of politicizing Operation Sindoor. BJP leaders criticized Yadav’s remarks. They condemned his statement as divisive and disrespectful to the armed forces. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath also slammed Yadav’s casteist remarks.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav on Thursday stoked a controversy as he invoked the castes of Wing Commander Vyomika Singh and Air Marshal A K Bharti — who were part of the media briefings on Operation Sindoor — to mount an attack on BJP, with the latter shredding him for using “casteist glasses” to look at the armed forces.Talking to the media in Moradabad, Yadav accused BJP of carrying out ‘Tiranga Yatras’ to use Operation Sindoor for political mileage. He said BJP members, who had attacked Col Sofiya Qureshi — who was also part of the briefings along with Wing Commander Vyomika — because of her religion, would have done the same to the two IAF officers, too, if they knew about their castes.“They didn’t even know who Vyomika Singh was or what her caste is, nor did they know about Air Marshal A K Bharti. Otherwise, they would’ve hurled abuses at them, too. Let me tell you, Vyomika Singh is a Jatav from Haryana, and Air Marshal Bharti is a Yadav from Purnia,” he said, grouping the three armed forces officers as “constituents of the Pichhda-Dalit-Alpsankhyak (PDA) bloc”.Referring to Madhya Pradesh minister Vijay Shah’s objectionable comment on Col Sofiya, the SP veteran said: “One was abused because she was a Muslim. One (Wg Cdr Vyomika) was thought to be a Rajput, so nothing was said.”Yadav’s comments evoked a sharp response from Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who hit out at the SP neta saying his statement showed his “narrow-mindedness”, and was against the honour of the armed forces. “Every soldier of the Indian Army performs ‘Rashtradharma’ and is not a representative of any caste or religion,” Yogi said in a post on X, admonishing the SP politician for confining a “veerangana (brave) daughter” within the confines of caste.Yogi said it was this “distorted casteist mentality” that divided even patriotism just for the sake of appeasement and vote bank politics.BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia called Yadav’s statement “shameful, reprehensible and criminal.”UP BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary said Yadav’s remarks were an insult not just to Army and valour of soldiers, but also to crores of Scheduled Caste people. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Ram Gopal Yadav could not digest Pakistan’s defeat, and that’s why “they are looking for caste in the Army”, he alleged.Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya said, “Army is beyond caste and religion. Their religion is to protect the country. Seeing Army through the lens of caste is a sick mentality.”