Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday, 10 October, launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Vadra accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of 'shielding' Union Minister of State Ajay Misra and his son Ashish Misra – who has been accused of mowing down protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri – instead of providing justice to the families of those who died in the incident.
Addressing a Kisan Nyan rally in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi, Vadra asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in the state capital Lucknow last week, did not visit the kin of eight people who had died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
"The CM is shielding the minister from public forum. PM came to Lucknow to see the performance of 'Uttam Pradesh' & Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav but couldn't go to Lakhimpur Kheri to share the grief of the victim families."Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress General Secretary.
Vadra added that that while "families of all the victims said they want justice" the government, she said, has been busy shielding the minister and his son.
"Last week, the son of Union MoS (Home) mowed down six farmers with his vehicle. Families of all the victims said they want justice, but all of you have seen that the Government is shielding the minister & his son," she added.
She also criticised Modi and Yogi Adityanath for calling the protesting farmers 'terrorists' and 'hooligans'.
"PM Modi called the protesting farmers 'Andolanjivi' & terrorists. Yogi Ji called them hooligans & tried to threaten them. The same minister (Ajay Kumar Misra) said that he would make the protesting farmers fall in line within 2 minutes," she said.
She further attacked Modi by saying that only "two types of people" were "safe in this country today – BJP leaders who are in power and their billionaire friends".
"Modi Ji bought two aircraft for himself for Rs 16,000 crore last year. He sold the entire Air India of this country for just Rs 18,000 crore to his billionaire friends," she said.
"Farmers are protesting for over 300 days, during which more than 600 farmers have died. They're protesting because they know that their income, land & crops would be go to billionaire friends of this government," she added.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, too, slammed Modi over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, inflation, and several other issues.
"PM (is) silent (on): Rising inflation - oil prices, unemployment, farmer and BJP worker murdered; PM (is) violent (on): Lack of camera and photo ops, true criticism, Question on friends," the Wayanad MP tweeted in Hindi.
Earlier, Cut-outs of Vadra and her brother Rahul Gandhi had been erected at the rally venue as the Congress party looks to launch its campaign in the state, where elections are scheduled to be held next year February and March.
Ajay Kumar Lallu, the president of the UP Congress Committee, said that the Kisan Nyay rally should be seen as a warning for the ruling BJP.
Stressing the importance on justice for farmers, he also said that the Congress party "will not rest in peace until the culprits of the heinous crime committed against farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri are put behind bars," Hindustan Times report added.
Taking a dig at the Yogi Adityanath government's practice of putting up posters to name and shame protesters who allegedly damaged public property during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests, Lallu enquired why the same government did not put up posters of those who have been accused of murdering farmers in cold blood.
In a tweet on Saturday, Priyanka Gandhi had asserted that “the aggrieved farmer families have only one demand: justice to them."
She had further insisted that it would be "impossible to get justice without the dismissal of the minister and arrest of the accused of murder."
(With inputs from Hindustan Times.)
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