Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who arrived here today to meet the families of two farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, said that by allowing Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra to continue on the post, the Centre is sending a message that those in power can do anything.
The Union minister’s son, Ashish Kumar Mishra, and others have been booked in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that erupted during a farmers’ protest on Sunday.
“If the minister of state for home does not resign nor is he sacked, then it means that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving a message to the public that if someone is in power, if he is a minister, he can do anything,” Ms Gandhi Vadra told reporters in Moharnia, where she met the family members of Gurvinder Singh, one of the four farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
On her meetings with the bereaved families since Wednesday, when the Uttar Pradesh government released her from detention and allowed her to go to Lakhimpur and Bahraich , the Congress general secretary said, “We have met the families of all the deceased farmers. Everyone says they are not bothered about the compensation, they are only concerned about the dismissal of the minister of state for home and the arrest of the criminals.”
She also said the families of the victims have some video clips of Sunday’s incident that show what transpired that day. “The family members have said that they want justice,” she stressed.
Ms Gandhi Vadra’s convoy of vehicles was stopped by the district administration near the Ghaghra Ghat bridge as soon as it entered Bahraich from Barabanki as Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was in force and the Congress workers accompanying her raised slogans against the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh in protest.
The magistrate and the police officers present on the spot subsequently allowed only Congress leaders Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Tanuj Punia, who had come with Ms Gandhi Vadra, to proceed along with her to meet the families of the dead farmers.
On her way to Bahraich, Ms Gandhi Vadra also performed a “puja” at a temple in the Arjunganj area of Lucknow.
