Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to visit Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with a 5-member party delegation is expected to visit the violence-hit Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday (Today), however, he has been denied permission by the CM Yogi Adityanath government.
Significantly, section 144 has been imposed in Lakhimpur Kheri where violence took place on Sunday. The former Congress president is likely to meet the families of the farmers killed in the incident.
Ahead of the visit, the Congress had sought permission for Rahul Gandhi’s visit in a letter to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, adding that permission had been given to other leaders from UP and West Bengal.
Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal wrote to UP CM Yogi Adityanath seeking permission for the Rahul Gandhi-led delegation to visit Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday, saying political leaders of UP and West Bengal have been given permission and Congress should be allowed in the same spirit.
However, the Uttar Pradesh government refused to allow the delegation led by Rahul Gandhi to visit Lakhimpur Kheri in view of Section 144.
Congress seeks CM Yogi Adityanath’s permission for Rahul Gandhi’s Lakhimpur visit.
Rahul Gandhi’s visit comes at a time when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who wanted to visit Lakhimpur Kheri, has already been detained in Sitapur.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Tuesday termed the investigation into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence as “paperwork” and asked why the Union minister’s son, accused of cutting farmers, was not yet arrested and the minister sacked.
Congress leader and former Law Minister Ashwini Kumar also asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not meet the families of eight people killed in the Lakhimpur incident while he was in Lucknow on Tuesday for the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ programme.
Kumar also questioned the detention of leaders like Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who, he said, sought to share the grief of the affected families.
Kumar said human life cannot be measured in monetary terms after the government announced a compensation of Rs 45 lakh to the affected families. He also rejected the “agreement” reached between the farmers and the officials.
“We think only paperwork has been done to suppress people’s anger. But this anger cannot be suppressed and history is witness to it,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, the Yogi Adityanath government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Lakhimpur-Kheeri incident, in which 8 people were killed on Sunday.
The six-member SIT will be headed by Additional SP Arun Kumar and will include Deputy SP Sandeep Singh and three inspectors.
Violence erupted in Lakhimpur-Kheri on Sunday when some people rammed the protesting farmers with their vehicles, triggering a violent reaction. Nine people had died in the incident.
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