Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, along with other senior party leaders, on Saturday met the victims of Saharanpur caste clashes and their family members at the district’s border after authorities denied him permission to visit the violence-hit area.
Rahul holds a ‘Chaupal’ at Sarsawa Village on the Haryana-UP border in Saharanpur and met the families members of victims hailing from Sabbirpur and talked to them for about 15 minutes.
later talking to reporters, Rahul said, “The Yogi Adityanath Government has failed in maintaining law and order in UP. Everybody in the country, who is not powerful, is scared. This is not the way to run a country.”
Rahul, who proceeded further before being stopped by the administration at a check post in Saharanpur, had heated exchange of words with the administrative officers asking them that under what legal provisions they were asking him not to enter the district.
“I am going back because the administration has told me to do so. As soon as normalcy will be restored, they will take me to the villages,” he added before leaving back for New Delhi.
The Congress vice-president said, “I wanted to visit Sabbirpur but was not allowed. Actually, the authorities had stopped me at the border, but I somehow reached here at Sarsawa Village after walking over a mile.” Rahul was accompanied by AICC general secretary, in-charge of UP affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad and UP Congress chief Raj Babbar.
He travelled from New Delhi by road after his chopper was denied landing permission by the State administration order to restrict the entry of political leaders in Saharanpur. Rahul had met Congress president Sonia Gandhi before leaving for Saharanpur from New Delhi. ADG (law and Order) Aditya Misra, who is camping in Saharanpur in view of the tense situation there, said police had requested Rahul to cancel his visit as it wanted to avoid any “confusion and provocation”.
Saharanpur borders had been ordered to be sealed to prevent Rahul from visiting survivors of the caste violence that has hit the district. Senior civil and police officials, including Deputy Inspector General (Security) Vijay Bhushan, were camping on the Uttar Pradesh-Haryana border at Sarsawa to intercept Rahul’s motorcade. The State Government’s move comes after the violence in Saharanpur raised with the visit of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati earlier this week.
Former Union Minister Kumar Shailja and senior Congress leader Pl Punia were denied permission to visit Saharanpur. On Saturdya former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav was also denied permission to visit Saharanpur. The permission was denied based on the State policy of keeping the region out of bounds for leaders until the situation returns to normal. The ADG said Government was committed to ensuring peace and harmony in the region and will not allow any political leader to visit the places that have been singed by caste clashes over the past few days.
He said senior state officials are camping in the district to monitor the situation.
On Friday, the UP government had denied permission to Rahul Gandhi to visit the villages where caste conflicts since May 5 have left at least two dead and over two dozen others injured, until the situation returns to normal. The Centre has sent 400 anti-riot police personnel to Saharanpur to help the state restore peace in the region. On May 23, another person was shot dead and two others were wounded, following which the government suspended the SSP and district magistrate and transferred the divisional commissioner and the deputy inspector general of police. About a dozen police vehicles were set ablaze and 12 policemen were injured on May 9. Violence first broke out in Saharanpur about 40 days ago following a procession to mark Ambedkar Jayanti. On May 5, a person was killed and 15 people were injured in clashes.