The alleged murder of four peacefully protesting farmers at Lakhimpur in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday by Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son has led to a fierce back and forth of allegations by the opposition party leaders against the BJP Government in the state and Centre.
Tensions and outbursts in the Indian political scene have continued to surge since Sunday as the events of the bloodiest collision in the farmers’ protest, started in August 2020 over the revoking of Centre’s Agri Bill, unfold.
As a “speculated” premeditated conspiracy, the incident involved a convoy of three SUVs driven by BJP workers on their way to greet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya for an event, one of which mowed down four farmers.
Eight people died in total; four of them were protesting farmers. During this horrific event, most opposition party leaders were detained and stopped from visiting the site, which has led to a massive back and forth of accusations and statements by prominent political figures. This article aims to list everything uttered by opposition leaders in the wake of this unrest.
On Monday (a day after the incident), the general secretary of Congress in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, en route Lakhimpur to meet the families of the four deceased farmers, was detained at a local guest house.
On Tuesday, the Sitapur Police arrested her and ten others (including Devendra Hooda and Ajay Kumar Lallu) on “prevention of cognizable offenses”.
Since the arrest with no FIR or warrant took place, Priyanka Gandhi has been quite vocal about the agendas of the BJP Government in UP and its attempt to retaliate with oppression and violence instead of addressing the crimes.
Accusing the UP government of wielding propaganda and public relations behind the welfare of people, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “There are violent reactions towards people who raise their voices either in protest or simply to demand their rights”.
She further raised questions on why the accused weren’t arrested immediately and why is suppressing the matter without probes the priority.
Navjot Singh Sidhu, backing Gandhi up on this matter, tweeted about initiating a Congress March to Lakhimpur if the accused were not put behind bars and the wrongfully detained ones were not set free. Rahul Gandhi was also proactive in supporting Priyanka.
Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav was also detained and put on house arrest before his visit to Lakhimpur. Yadav accused BJP leaders and Union Minister of State’s son of cruelty and demanded Aditya Yoginath’s resignation after a violent feud.
He quoted in a tweet, “UP will not tolerate atrocities by arrogant BJP members and if this state of affairs continues then in UP BJP members will not be able to travel in vehicles”.
Following this, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel was not allowed to board a flight to Lucknow where the Prime Minister is attending an Urban Conclave, despite claiming that the travel had nothing to do with Lakhimpur.
In furious support of the opposition, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren declared the incident a “blot on humanity” and a vulgar display of majoritarian oppression. He claimed to strongly disapprove of the attempts to detain and arrest all opposition leaders as an attempt to subjugate the matter.
CPI General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and Varun Gandhi came up front to support the farmers and their plight regarding the bill. Yechury made a solid stance to sack Ajay Mishra and arrest his son for the horrendous incident, and both he and Gandhi urged the revoking of farm bills.
Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Minister, was also quick to attack the BJP government at UP and the Centre, claiming the start of a “Killing Raj” as a violent attempt to prevail their autocracy over welfare.
Shiv Sena MP, Sanjay Raut also speculated the underlying motive of BJP stifling the opposition could be their new strategy where he was backed by AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj who compared the approach to the ‘Hathras Model’.
Amidst serious altercations, every opposition party leader was agitated that the Prime Minister did not even visit the crime scene despite being very close by in Lucknow and the lack of any comment or explanation from their side.
Ajay Mishra, however, recently promised to resign if even a shred of evidence was found against his son in the murder case.
