Senior BJP leader Balraj Passi continued his hunger strike even from Haldwani’s base hospital on Monday where he was shifted from the Haldwani jail on Sunday night on account of his deteriorating health condition.
It may be recalled that over a dozen BJP activists including Passi were lodged in the Haldwani jail on the charge of violating section 144 in Rudrapur on October 23. Passi sat on hunger strike in the said jail premises from Friday, demanding release of the party activists without any precondition.
Since there is no development from the Government side for the release of the BJP workers without any precondition as the BJP activists have demanded, Passi continued his hunger strike even from the hospital premises.
In the meantime, the party activists including members from the BJP Mahila morcha kept on visiting Passi at the aforesaid hospital since Monday morning.
The Congress-led State Government is raking up an old case of Rudrapur with political vendetta, alleged Anil Kumar Dabbu, a senior BJP leader, while talking to The Pioneer after visiting Passi at the said hospital here on Monday.
However, the BJP strongly condemn such action of the State Government. It is nothing but an attempt on part of the Congress-led State Government to divert the attention of the common people from its failure on the governance front, he alleged.
As the BJP activists here said the State Government wanted to release the BJP workers on the same day when the Udham Singh Nagar police arrested them on the charge of flouting section 144 in Rudrapur on personal bond of Rs25,000. But the party activists refused to accept this offer. They wanted to be released without any precondition, added the party activists here.
The matter of fact is that the BJP activists wanted to stage a peaceful agitation in Rudrapur on Wednesday last in protest against naming party MlA from Rudrapur Raj Kumar Thukral in the Rudrapur incident of October 2011.
But the State Government only suppressed voice of the Opposition party activists by arresting them, the BJP activists alleged, adding it is violation of our democratic rights.