AKHILESH YADAV STOPPED FROM TAKING PART IN KISAN YATRA, DETAINED
SP chief writes to Lok Sabha speaker, asks him to intervene
LUCKNOW: In what turned out to be high-voltage drama, the Uttar Pradesh police on Monday detained SP chief Akhilesh Yadav from outside his house here following a sit-in protest. The sit-in was prompted by the police preventing him from going to Kannauj to participate in the Kisan Yatra, an SP campaign in solidarity with the farmers’ nationwide protest over the Central government’s three new farm reform laws. Party workers protested against the SP chief’s detention and many of them were injured in a police lathicharge in Lucknow. Akhilesh was sent to Eco Garden on Lucknow’s Jail road where he stayed till late in the evening.
LUCKNOW: In what turned out to be high-voltage drama, the Uttar Pradesh police on Monday detained Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav from outside his house here following a sit-in protest. The sit-in was prompted by the police preventing him from going to Kannauj to participate in the Kisan Yatra, an SP campaign in solidarity with the farmers’ nationwide protest over the Central government’s three new farm reform laws.
Party workers protested against the SP chief’s detention and many of them were injured in a police lathi-charge in Lucknow. Akhilesh was sent to Eco Garden on Lucknow’s Jail road where he stayed till late in the evening. Many likened Akhilesh’s sit-in and detention with his father and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s similar act in January 2010 against the then Mayawati government. Mulayam had sat in the middle of Hazratganj crossing, the main crossroads of Lucknow.
Akhilesh, who is the Azamgarh MP, was quick in writing a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, asking him to step in.
Last week, the SP chief had announced that his party would begin a statewide Kisan Yatra from December 7 on foot, bicycles, motorcycles and tractors over farmers’ issues. Akhilesh Yadav was scheduled to launch the campaign from Kannauj, which he has represented in the Lok Sabha thrice. Since early morning, the Lucknow police barricaded the Vikramaditya Marg where Akhilesh’s residence and the party headquarters are located. The police also barricaded Akhilesh’s house and party office’s main gate.
Joint commissioner of police, Lucknow, Naveen Arora said, “The police were deployed to prevent any law and order trouble. The Kannauj district magistrate had sent a notice to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav not to visit Kannauj as protests, demonstrations are prohibited in the district. The same message was conveyed to the Lucknow police following which we have acted.”
Several prominent leaders of the party, including the main organiser of the Kannauj event, the SP’s Kannauj Sadar MLA Anil Dohre, were detained by the police. In Lucknow, SP MLCs Rajpal Kashyap, Ashu Malik, Udaiveer Singh and former minister Rajendra Chaudhary were detained. Similar detentions were reported from most of the UP districts.
The party’s former Badaun MP was detained in Badaun.
In the letter to Om Birla, Akhilesh wrote: “Apart from being a Lok Sabha member and Samajwadi Party chief, I had fulfilled my constitutional duty as UP chief minister. There was a preannounced programme of mine in Kannauj in support of farmers. All preparations were in place. But on the instructions of the UP government, I was prevented from going to Kannauj,” he said.
He added that a heavy police force was deployed at his house on Vikramaditya Marg.
“The police even took my vehicle under their control. This undemocratic behaviour of the state government is not only an infringement of my rights as a citizen but also of special privileges as a Lok Sabha member. Kindly intervene, so that my right to my democratic duties is restored,” Yadav wrote.
Akhilesh held a sit-in when the police stopped his vehicle from coming out of the gate of the residence.
“This government is so scared of Akhileshji taking to the streets. He had to go to Kannauj to participate in the farmers’ protest and drive a tractor, along with the farmers, to raise their issue. First, the central government introduced draconian kind of farm laws and now the state government is preventing our party from protesting. This is so anti-democratic,” said Rajendra Chaudhary, SP state spokesperson and former UP minister.
Rashtriya Lok Dal spokesperson Anil Dubey also criticised Akhilesh’s detention.
Meanwhile, hundreds of SP workers and leaders, including former ministers, who were trying to take out a padyatra (foot march) in support of the ongoing farmers’ agitation, faced police action in Varanasi, Mirzapur, Azamgarh, Prayagraj, Kaushambi and Pratapgarh districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh on Monday. While some of them were detained, a few were stopped from moving out of their homes to lead the protest.
Superintendent of police (Varanasi City) Vikas Chandra Tripathi said the people who were detained in the morning were released in the evening.