‘Police manhandled me, tried to force me into their vehicle’
In police custody in Sitapur after being stopped from going to Lakhimpur Kheri where people in a vehicle belonging to a Union minister of state allegedly ran over some farmers protesting the farm laws, resulting in some of them being lynched by other farmers (eight people were dead at the end of the incident), Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke to Sunetra Choudhury on the phone about the farm agitation. Edited excerpts:
Where are you speaking to us from?
I’m technically in custody. I arrived in Lucknow at night with the intention of going to Lakhimpur Kheri in the morning.
At three toll gates, they had parked trucks so that we could not go across. We managed to cross two and then we decided to go via dirt tracks and village roads. We ended up about 10km from the Lakhimpur Kheri border in Sitapur. At which point, we were again surrounded by police. I got out and a cordon of policewomen was made around me.
I tried to walk but they were pushing and shoving. They also pushed and shoved (MP) Deepender Hooda, and manhandled him. As I was trying to stop them from hitting my colleagues, they manhandled me. They tried to force me into their jeep, but I told them there was no legal basis. Even if Section 144 was there, I told them that four of us will go and in no way were we breaking the law. (At) That point a senior officer told me that they are arresting me under section 151 (preventive arrest) but they had no answer as to what crime I was going to commit. Then they brought me here without my security or any of my colleagues, to this rest house.
Has the Opposition been successful in this case? An FIR has been filed in this case, and compensation has been announced.
The UP government usually takes action when political pressure is put on them, which is why it is extremely important for opposition parties to raise their voice and create pressure. However, the action they take in that moment isn’t complete. So, for example, they have arrested me but why have they not arrested a man who is accused of mowing down farmers and of whom there are videos, ground reports and all sorts of evidence?
Are you planning a concerted effort with other opposition leaders?
In the last two years, when have you seen Mr Akhilesh Yadav come out on the street for any agitation? Did you see him during the NRC-CAA protests or during the Hathras incident? You did not. Did you see Mayawatiji? You did not. Did you see the Congress party? Yes, you did. (But) I am open to (working with) anybody as objective is to defeat the BJP.
But is there a paucity of faces in the Congress as many like Jitin Prasada have left?
It’s not a question of faces but what you have on the ground. Our party has to slowly build from the ground and those who don’t have the heart for this fight, who don’t have the courage to deal with the kind of things visited upon them when they do fight (legal cases, harassment etc), actually should leave.