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Congress chalked out legal plan to corner BJP on Lakhimpur Kheri violence
With assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh due in less than six months, the Congress is expected to up the ante politically.
New Delhi:
The Congress had prepared an elaborate legal plan in response to the killing of farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri, but ultimately decided to not to take up a legal battle at this point and continue to mount political attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to two senior Congress functionaries.
The two, who asked not to be named, said one part of the plan was to appeal to National Human Rights Commission. The second was to knock on the doors of the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored probe into the incident. So far, no major political party has demanded intervention by the National Human Rights Commission into the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
The third was to challenge the imposition of section 144 in UP that empowered the UP police to detain Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi at Sitapur on Sunday evening and prevented party leaders from reaching Lakhimpur Kheri.
“We even prepared the legal note,” said one of the two, but the party’s leadership, including both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi decided against seeking legal recourse, and to fight it out politically. With election in Uttar Pradesh due in less than six months, the Congress is expected to up the ante politically, although the leader said the legal options haven’t been completely ruled out, especially in terms of seeking a court-monitored probe or one by NHRC.
“So far, no mainstream Opposition party has gone to NHRC to seek its intervention in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. But we had a plan. However, even within our own organization, a section was skeptical as one of the body’s recent order sparked a political debate,” said the second leader. His reference is to NHRC’s recommendations after it looked into instances of violence after the elections in West Bengal, with the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress government claiming these favour the Bharatiya Janata Party, which ended up on the losing side in the polls.
The plan to go to court to seek a probe was also kept in abeyance as the party felt it was important for Congress leaders to first reach there to step up the political heat against the Yogi Adityanath government.
“The state government has already ordered a probe by a retired judge. Thus, at this stage a fresh demand for a court-monitored probe was found unnecessary. But we can make a demand for a court-monitored probe at an appropriate time if we see the investigation is not progressing in right direction.,” the second leader said.
In fact, when asked about the probe ordered by the government, Rahul Gandhi, in his press conference on Wednesday morning, said: “First of all I want to go there and understand the matter and what is the ground reality. The ground reality is really ground reality, no one knows yet, first of all we want to go and understand that, so we are going to Lucknow and Lakhimpur Kheri.”
A former union minister, who was in touch with Priyanka Gandhi, communicated to the leaders involved that she too, wants to continue the political fight. “Anyways, a sub judice matter can take way the political sheen,” said the second leader.
The Congress leaders had also planned to challenge the administrative order of imposition of section 144 of the CrPC. “In 2020, a Supreme Court order stated that section 144 can’t be applied to restrict citizens to assemble peacefully and it can’t be a tool to prevent legitimate expression of grievance or exercise of any democratic rights,” said the first leader.
