Continuing her `satyagrah’ at the PAC Guest House where she was detained in Sitapur, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted a viral video just a few hours ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lucknow visit on Tuesday and asked why had the person behind the killing of four farmers not been arrested while she was under detention for 28 hours without an FIR.
The video is of an SUV running over farmers during a protest in Lakhimpur Kheri district. In the video in Hindi, Priyanka Vadra says, "Modiji, Namaskar, maine suna hai ki Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav manane aap Lucknow aa rahe hain, mein aap se poochhna chahati hun ki aapne ye video dekha hai, aapki sarkar ke ek mantri ke bete ne kisano ko kuchal diya, is video ko dekhiye aur desh ko bataiye ke is mantri ko barkhast kyun nahi kiya gya aur is ladke ko giraftar kyun nahi kia gya. (I have heard that you are coming to Lucknow to celebrate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. I want to ask you that have you seen the video. The son of one your ministers has mauled the farmers. Watch this video and tell the country why hasn't the minister been dismissed and why hasn't this boy been arrested? Leaders like us who want to visit Lakhimpur Kheri have been put under custody without any FIR, I want to know why this man is free?”
She also questioned why Union minister Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ had not been sacked. The farmers have claimed that the vehicle which ran over the farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri's Tikonia on Sunday was part of the convoy of Teni's son Ashish.
“When you sit on the dais for Azadi ka Mahotsav festival today Modiji, please remember that we got our Independence because of the farmers. Even today, their sons protect our borders. Our farmers are troubled for months, and have been raising their voices but you have been ignoring them,” Priyanka Vadra said, urging the prime minister to visit the spot.
In the video posted on Twitter, a group of protesting farmers are being mowed down by a grey SUV. One man is thrown up over the bonnet before the vehicle speeds away, leaving a jumble of bodies on the side of the road. Other cars in the convoy follow through. Four farmers died in the incident, and four others besides a journalist died in subsequent protests.
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who sat on a dharna inside the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport here on Tuesday after he was not allowed to proceed further citing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, also questioned the authorities, accusing them of adopting double standard.
“You are detaining me on the ground of prohibitory orders but why did you not apply the same order and stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he arrived in the airport to inaugurate a function earlier in the morning,” asked Baghel to the officers detaining him.
Veteran Congress leaders Pramod Tiwari and PL Punia were at the airport to receive Baghel but they too were not allowed to go inside the airport.
“I had no plan to visit Lakhimpur Kheri but still the UP government stopped me from going outside the airport which is an undemocratic and dictatorial attitude,'' Baghel added.
Earlier, after Priyanka Vadra continued with ‘satyagrah’ and made it clear that she would not return before meeting the families of the victim farmers, the Sitapur police filed a First Information Report (FIR) against her and several others for “disrupting peace” and breaching Section 144.
According to Hargaon police station SHO Brijesh Tripathi, a case has been registered against 11 persons, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Devindra Hooda and Ajay Kumar Lallu under Section 107/16 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Besides Priyanka Gandhi, UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu, national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar, Youth Congress national president BV Srinivas, party MLC Deepak Singh were also taken into preventive custody.
The SHO of Hargaon has sent the report to the magistrate.
Priyanka Vadra claimed that she had been detained for the last 28 hours without any order or FIR. The Congress alleged that drones were being used to monitor the movement of Priyanka at PAC Guest House. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel tweeted a video of drones monitoring the guest house.
"Who will take responsibility, whose drone is this and why," he tweeted.
Meanwhile, there were country-wide protests against Priyanka Vadra’s detention and hundreds of Congress workers were sitting outside the PAC Guest House in Sitapur, waiting for their leader's release.