Farmers Movement Archive

Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Law and order situation in a shambles in UP, says HP Congress

The Himachal Congress on Tuesday staged protests across the state over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, where a car from the convoy allegedly belonging to Union minister Ajay Mishra ran over the protesting farmers, and the subsequent detention of Opposition leaders who were on their way to meet the victims. State Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathore, who led the protest outside the deputy commissioner’s office in Shimla , said, “The law and order situation in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh is in a shambles and Opposition leaders are being put under house arrest to stop them from going to Lakhimpur Kheri.” “Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish Mishra mowed down farmers with his car, just a few days after the minister openly threatened the crush the farmers’ protests.The BJP leadership is doing all it can to suppress the farmers’ protest against the three contentious farm laws and has also resorted to massacring farmers,” the HP Congress chief said. “Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was arrested without an FIR. The BJP government is trying to stifle democracy and have always acted against farmers. In Himachal too, the police had opened fire on farmers and killed three people,” she said. Meanwhile, leading a protest at Shahpur in Kangra, state Congress general secretary Kewal Singh Pathania said the Union minister’s son run over the peaceful protesters and fuelled the violence. Saying Vadra’s arrest will mark the current dispensation’s downfall, Pathania said, “In 1977, the then Jan Sangh government’s downfall started with the arrest of former PM Indira Gandhi on October 3. Forty-four years later, the arrest of Vadra on October 3 also mark the beginning of current regimes downfall,” he said.The protesters have submitted a memorandum to the President of India demanding strict action against those accused of killing farmers and the release of Opposition leaders. They also demanded resignation of Union minister Teni and a judicial probe into the incident.

Hindustan Times

06-10-2021

Chandigarh