India is not the place for revenge, Priyanka tells Yogi
India is not the place for Yogi Adityanath’s revenge, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi reminded the Uttar Pradesh chief minister on Monday, as she interacted with the media in Delhi and Lucknow on the assault launched on her last week by the police force in that state.
She said the UP government and its police force were “complicit in wrongdoings” in the brutal crackdown against people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Concluding her four-day visit to Lucknow days after statewide violent clashes over the CAA, she asserted India was “no place for enmity, violence and revenge.” Referring to the Yogi’s warning of revenge against protesters, she accused his police of working to ensure it. She reaffirmed that the Lucknow police indeed manhandled her. “They grabbed me by the neck,” she said. The attack happened as she was proceeding to visit a retired IPS officer arrested for opposing the new law.
“An IPS officer, a follower of Ambedkar, was arrested from his house.
His home reflects the kind of person he is...
Priyanka said the UP government and its police force were ‘complicit in wrongdoings’ in the brutal crackdown against people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act
he had posted urging peaceful protests. His 75-year-old wife is ill,” Priyanka said.
The Congress leader was manhandled by the UP police as she was on her way to the officer’s house. In Delhi, she told the media later: “My safety isn’t a big issue...
(it) doesn’t deserve security. We are talking about safety of common man, safety of citizens. The cases we know of suggest more than 5,500 have been arrested. Many have been jailed in discreet manner... they are being thrashed. Police and administration are complicit in wrongdoing.” Ripping into the Yogi’s warning of revenge, she said: “I think it is happening for the first time that a Chief Minister has made a statement like ‘badla liya jaega (we will take revenge).’ And this is what is happening in the state.
“Yogi-ji wears ‘bhagwa’ (saffron). It is not his... saffron belongs to this country’s religious and spiritual spirit. It is a symbol of the Hindu religion. He should follow that religion. There is no place for enmity, revenge and violence in that religion.” Over 25 people have died across the Bjp-ruled UP alone, many from bullet injuries. The state police, which had initially denied shooting, later admitted it. At least two of those killed were from Bijnor district and Priyanka visited their families.
The Bijnor police chief has claimed the killings were in self-defence.
“I went to Bijnor... two kids died there. One was a coffee vendor who was standing outside his house; he had told his father he’d go and buy milk. His father advised against it but he went ahead,” she said, adding, “People say cops picked him up and, after 30 minutes, they got to know a boy’s body had been found... he had been shot. Cops pressed FIR, threatened victim’s family against seeking justice.” “The other (20-year-old Suleman who was an IAS aspirant) had gone to offer namaz,” she said.
In a 4-page memorandum to UP Governor Anandiben Patel, Priyanka made a strong demand for a judicial enquiry into the “unlawful conduct” of the police during protests.
Priyanka also appealed to the Governor to provide bail to all the “peaceful protesters” and to withdraw all the cases filed against them. She also appealed that the students who are protesting peacefully should not face any academic or legal action.
Priyanka also attacked the UP Police for covering up the death of two people in Bijnor. “The contradictory statements made by the police can only mean one of the two things: either the Director General of Police intentionally mislead the people, or he himself was misled by his own subordinates and was not aware that the bullets were fired by his men,” she wrote.
Shia cleric Kalbe Jawwad met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on Saturday and demanded release of people arrested in “fake” cases related to anti-caa violence.
He also demanded that students arrested from a Shia Madarsa in Muzaffarnagar should also be released and action should be taken against erring officials.
The cleric lauded the Lucknow police for controlling the situation which arose after the anti-caa protests and said that action should also be taken against anti-social elements who instigated the violence.