SP youths fry fritters, beg on ‘unemployment day’ protest
Samajwadi Party (SP) youth workers observed Thursday as ‘unemployment day’ by staging statewide dharnas and demonstrations. As part of the protest, they sought alms, fried fritters (pakodas) and polished shoes of passers-by, wearing garlands of vegetables. The party president Akhilesh Yadav supported the protest by tweeting: “When youths are against, farmers are against, then consider the days of the arrogant government numbered.”
“The protest and demonstration--in which men and women participated--was against unemployment, price rise and a proposed move of UP government to hire staff on a five-year contract. In several districts, the police lathi-charged the protestors and a large number of SP workers courted arrest,” said Samajwadi Party (SP) state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary
in a statement issued in the evening.
Later in the day, Akhilesh Yadav said in a statement: “The lathi-charge on the peacefully demonstrating youths who only wanted to give a memorandum of demands was uncalled for and deplorable.
It was not a good act of the government to lathi-charge the youths who were demanding employment. “
In Lucknow, SP youths demonstrated at multiple places and raised slogans against the BJP government. Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha, the students’ wing of the party, demonstrated outside Lucknow University where police arrested 13 of them.
Mahanagar Lucknow Mahila Sabha (women’s wing) took out a procession but the activists were stopped from reaching the district magistrate’s office where they were headed to give the memorandum. Some women workers wore garlands of vegetables to indicate price rise.
In Kanpur, the protest led by Irfan Solanki clanged plates while several youths walked the streets with begging bowls. Similar protests were reported from Gonda, Amethi, Noida, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Sant Kabir Nagar, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Agra and all other districts. Sultanpur protesters fried fritters and begged.