Priyanka Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav slam UP police action against the protesters
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday slammed Bharatiya Janata Party and Centre over the UP Police action against the protesters.
Priyanka Gandhi slammed the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over the arrest of her party worker Sadaf Zafar during the protests.
“...She [Priyanka Gandhi] met family members of social activist Sadaf Jafar at the former’s residence on Saturday. A delegation comprising Jitin Prasada, Acharya Pramod Krishnam and Zafar Ali Naqvi was sent to the residence of Mohammad Waqil, who died in the violence that followed CAA protests (in Lucknow),” said a senior Congress leader, requesting anonymity.
“Uttar Pradesh government has crossed all limits of inhumanity. Congress worker Sadaf Zafar in a video can be clearly seen telling policemen to arrest those indulging in violence. The police has levelled baseless allegations on Sadaf and put her in jail,” Priyanka Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.
On December 19, Zafar was detained and then sent to jail for alleged violation of Section 144 during protests in Lucknow.
Reacting to Priyanka Gandhi's statements, Keshav Prasad Maurya said that her statements will only put future of Congress at stake.
“Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi does not want the welfare of the people of Lucknow. ‘Nautanki’ (dramatics) will not fetch votes for the Congress... By misleading the country on the issue of CAA, the Congress has become a villain in the eyes of the public,” he said in a tweet on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav also hit out at chief minister Yogi Adityanath for police crackdown during the anti-CAA protests. Akhilesh blamed Adityanath for the deaths of the protesters who were hit by bullets.
“It’s the chief minister’s language that led to the deaths. And now prompted by his language, the state government officers too are speaking in the same voice,” Akhilesh said, referring to the comments made by Meerut’s superintendent of police (city), Akhilesh Narayan Singh, who was caught on camera telling a group of Muslims to go to Pakistan during the protests in the sensitive town.
“The actions of officers, who committed excesses (during the CAA protests and related to it), have been caught on CCTV cameras. When we will form the government, we will order a probe and act against them,” he said.
The SP leader also said he will not fill the form to determine citizenship under the National Population Register (NPR). “The BJP won’t decide if we are Indians or not. We don’t want NPR. What we want are employment and livelihood. The experts are saying that the economy is in ICU,” Yadav said.
