Modi still maintains silence Lakhimpur Kheri: Rahul, Priyanka visit kin of deceased farmers

Congress leaders had been trying to reach the district since Sunday night, but were blocked by the Adityanath govt that put Priyanka Gandhi under detention at Sitapur

Braving detention and initial denials of permission, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi reached the homes of some of the bereaved families in Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday night. PTI picture shows Priyanka and Rahul embracing the family members of Luv Preet Singh, the 20-year-old who was crushed to death on Sunday. The family told Rahul they wanted justice, not compensation: PTI

Piyush Srivastava   |   TT  |  Lucknow   |   07.10.21:  The father of 20-year-old Luv Preet Singh who was mowed down by a Union minister’s SUV, allegedly driven by the minister’s son, in Lakhimpur Kheri told Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday that he wanted justice, not compensation.

“I am not happy with the police and the government. They came and gave us money. I told Rahul that whoever is with us should fight to ensure that the killer son of the Union minister is arrested. The goonda is still out and his father is still a minister. The home minister can easily influence the investigation,” Satnam Singh told Rahul when he, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other Congress leaders met their family around 9.30pm.

“The government gave us money but he has to be arrested. We all can see that the governments are protecting the killer. Even if crores of rupees are given, how can we be happy? Even if you weigh our son in rupees, you cannot return him to us,” Satnam told reporters afterwards.

“This is all we spoke to Rahul about. He said he will stand with us always,” the father said.

Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni accepts that the SUV that crushed to death the farmers returning from a protest was his, but denies his son Ashis was driving it. Before a video emerged clearly showing the SUV hitting farmers from behind, ploughing through them and speeding away, Teni had claimed that the farmers threw stones that caused an accident in which several of them got run over. Eyewitnesses have said Ashis, who is also known as Monu, was at the wheel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to utter words of condolence or condemnation on the horror. Modi visited Lucknow on Tuesday, but did not care to travel 129km more to Lakhimpur Kheri where innocent farmers and a journalist were murdered in cold blood. The spine-chilling incident happened days after Teni had warned from a public stage that he would fix the protesting farmers in two minutes if they did not mend their ways.

Congress leaders had been trying to reach Lakhimpur Kheri since Sunday night, but were blocked by the Yogi Adityanath government that put Priyanka Gandhi under detention at Sitapur, 40km from the district, at 4.30am on Monday. A Congress chief minister was not allowed to step out of Lucknow airport and a deputy chief minister was detained by police at the state’s border with Haryana. On Tuesday night, the party announced that Rahul would travel to Lakhimpur Kheri. Finally, on Wednesday, the government yielded and gave permission for the visit.

But when Rahul, accompanied by two Congress chief ministers and party leaders, landed at Lucknow airport at 1pm, he had to sit on dharna twice before he was allowed to reach his vehicle. The police were insisting he follow their route and that they escort him, which the Congress leader refused to do.

“Which rule is there in the country that decides which vehicle and route a citizen will take?” Rahul asked a police officer, who was heard replying: “We have orders from above.”

A picture from social media shows Narendra Modi with stock market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, counted among the 50 richest Indians, and his wife on Tuesday. Modi uploaded a different picture and tweeted: “Delighted to meet the one and only Rakesh Jhunjhunwala... lively, insightful and very bullish on India.” The Prime Minister is yet to express grief for the farmers who were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday or call on their relatives: Telegraph picture

“They are creating a trap for me to stop here. First they said I can go on my own and then said they will take me in their vehicle through a route they have decided. Matlab kuchh na kuchh badmashi kar rahe hai,” the former Congress president said.

Eventually, the Adityanath government had to give in.

Earlier in Delhi, Rahul had at a news conference explained why it was important that Opposition leaders visit the spot.

“The Opposition’s responsibility is to create pressure. When we create pressure, action is taken. In Hathras, action was taken after we built pressure. The government wants that we don’t raise this issue, don’t create pressure, so that the murderer escapes. Had we not gone to Hathras, the rapist would have escaped. So we are creating pressure,” the Congress leader said.

“When we go, when the chief ministers, myself, others go to visit the families, we are trying to give them confidence that in this country, you cannot be run over by a criminal who calls himself the home minister’s son and then nothing happens. We are not going to allow that. That is the message we are trying to give them. It is a message of hope,” he added.

Rahul’s convoy left Lucknow airport at 3pm and travelled the 85km to Sitapur in two hours. Rahul and Priyanka, who was freed after two days, started from there at 6.30pm and reached Lakhimpur Kheri at 8pm. A Congress leader alleged that the government had tried to slow their movement by parking vehicles on both sides of the road.

Luv Preet’s home was the first they visited, from where they travelled to the residence of journalist Raman Kashyap at Nighasan, reaching around 11pm. Raman’s father Ram Dulare Kashyap told reporters: “We want the killer Monu to be arrested and hanged for committing mass murder. We are farmers and my son had joined journalism only a year ago because he wanted a respectable life. He got death instead at the hands of those who should have been behind bars years ago.”

Teni, a strongman, had at the public platform from where he threatened farmers asked people to recall who he was before he became a legislator and minister.

Rahul spoke to journalists briefly after visiting the two homes. “Both the families want justice. They are saying that the entire country knows who did this but the government is not arresting them. The father of the killer is (junior) home minister and this is the reason he is still free,” he said.

“I’m here to help the families and mount pressure on the government so that the families get justice.”