Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday lashed out at the Yogi Adityanath government following the Lakhimpur Kheri incident and charged that the Uttar Pradesh government’s reaction to people raising their voice has been consistently that of violence and suppression.
She further said that the Lakhimpur Kheri incident is not an isolated one, while also hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not visiting Lakhimpur Kheri which is just a 15-minute helicopter ride from here, to wipe the tears of families whose sons have been “brutally murdered”. The PM was on a visit to Lucknow for an event.
Gandhi was detained on Monday in Sitapur while on her way to Lakhimpur. Eight people were killed in violence on Sunday. Four of the dead were farmers allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. The others included BJP workers and their driver, who were allegedly pulled out of the vehicles and then lynched by the protesters.
The UP government on Monday lodged a case against Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son and promised a probe by a retired high court judge.
When asked how she saw the Lakhimpur incident, Gandhi in a telephonic interview to PTI, said, “I see it as a part of a bigger picture of what is happening in the state and the nation because it is not an isolated incident in the sense that the government’s reaction to protests, to people raising their voices has consistently been that of violence and oppression”.
Gandhi also charged that the focus of the Uttar Pradesh government has been propaganda and public relations instead of welfare of people.
“I would like to understand that when government can arrest opposition leaders without an FIR or an order for their arrest, for the crime of trying to visit the victim’s families, then why can’t they arrest the accused who ran over the farmers and committed murder in full public view? It is clear that something is very wrong. I want to meet the families of the victims,” she insisted.
