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SP workers take to streets, govt says party unable to digest growth in UP
Samajwadi Party has said that they were lathi-charged by the police while they were engaged in peaceful protests.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) took to the streets against the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh on Friday and claimed that police lathi-charged its workers, including women, while they were engaged in a peaceful protest in several districts. A large number of them were arrested across the state and then released.
In Lucknow, the party held demonstrations at the Gandhi statue in Hazratganj and the collectorate.
Party spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhary, in a press statement in the evening, said: “According to information that we have received, over 12 lakh party workers, leaders, including legislators and former legislators, participated in the protest across the state and handed over a 25-point memorandum to the district administration. The memorandum was addressed to the governor.”
“The demonstration was held on 25 issues with law and order being the main one. The demonstration was announced by party president Akhilesh Yadav. While party workers demonstrated peacefully, the police in Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Aligarh, Amroha and other districts lathi-charged them,” he said.
The SP coincided the protest with ‘Kranti Diwas’, which is observed annually on August 9 to mark the historic ‘Quit India Movement’ initiated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942.
“Police acted in an undemocratic way, but the SP will not bend before these arm-twisting tactics of the government,” Chowdhary said.
The SP protestors engaged in sloganeering against the BJP government over the law and order situation, the Sonbhadra case and Unnao rape survivor case, the safety of women, crime and police encounters.
“The government has failed on all counts and could not do anything worthwhile in two-and-a-half years,” said Sunil Singh Sajan, an SP MLC.
Most SP protestors donned party’s red cap during the protest.
They called the government “anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-youth and women, and communal.”
Responding to the SP’s allegations, UP government spokesperson and cabinet minister Shrikant Sharma said the Samajwadi Party was unable to digest the all-round development in the state and hence resorting to such means.
“Record investments have come to the state in the past two years. In Sonbhadra, the Congress and the SP were involved in the massacre. The SP MP in Rampur was involved in land grabbing,” he alleged.
The senior minister asserted that the law and order situation in UP was the best during the present regime and perception of the state had drastically changed outside it.
