Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Thursday hit back at the Opposition for criticising his decision to celebrate Diwali in Ayodhya. “Visiting Ayodhya is about my personal faith,” he was quoted as saying by ANI. “How can the Opposition interfere in that?”

“The Opposition has no work,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said. “There is a transparent government in UP now. How can we expect any good from negative powers?”

Adityanath said that as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, he was “committed towards the development of every place in the state”. He also criticised the Opposition for trying to divert attention from the real issues.

“Devotees visit Shri Ram Janmabhoomi from all over the country and the world, and I was there to check the preparations in terms of their security, convenience and cleanliness, as well,” he said.

On Wednesday, Adityanath had said Ayodhya was the land of humanism where “everyone was treated equally”. The city is the hotbed of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, which has raged for several years now. On December 6, 1992, Hindu volunteers gathered at the site had demolished the mosque. The incident had triggered communal riots across the country.