With figures released by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) putting Uttar Pradesh on the nefarious top spot in human rights violation cases, Opposition parties targeted Yogi Adityanath government after a video of police brutality at Akbarpur district hospital in Kanpur Dehat went viral on Friday.
Reacting strongly to the incident, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to Twitter and termed police action as “human rights violation”.
"Uttar Pradesh under @myogiadityanath: #1 in Human Rights Violations," Priyanka tweeted on Friday with the hashtag #HumanRightsDay.
UP Congress chief, Ajay Kumar Lallu also expressed deep concern claiming that on one hand the state's law and order situation was deteriorating while in the name of improving the situation, the police were openly involved in brutality against all those raising voice against the government. He said that the latest report of the National Human Rights Commission was an embarrassment for any government, but Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was busy turning his back.
“The NHRC report says that only Uttar Pradesh accounts for 40 per cent of human rights violations from across the country, which is embarrassing. In the list of human rights abuse in the past year tabled by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday, UP tops with 24,242 registered cases, followed by Delhi (4,972) and West Bengal (3,903). The incident in Kanpur Dehat is just an example of police brutality. The reality is that under the Yogi government, crime has increased continuously in UP and the police have become unbridled,” Lallu said.
Referring to the killing of Arun Balmiki in police custody in Agra, trader Manish Gupta in Gorakhpur, suicide by Mahoba trader Indrakant Tripathi after being terrorised by the then SP Manilal Patidar and other cases, the Congress leader said that there should be fear of `law' in maintaining law and order and not the fear of `khaki' among the public.
Apart from Congress, leaders of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party also condemned the police assault on protesters at the Akbarpur hospital. Even Bharatiya Janata Party leader and MP Varun Gandhi shared the video of Kanpur Dehat on his Twitter and posted, "Strong law and order is one where the weakest of the weak can get justice. It is not that those seeking justice have to face this barbarity in place of justice, it is very painful. A fearful society is not an example of the rule of law. Strong law and order is one where there is fear of law, not of police."