Congress's Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today targetted the BJP over the farmer deaths in Lakhimpur Kheri, pointing out that no senior leader of the party, including the Prime Minister, had visited the area. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said, could visit Lucknow, but not Lakhimpur Kheri, she pointed out at a farmers' rally at the PM's Lok Sabha constitution -- Varanasi..
Pressing for the resignation of junior home minister Ajay Mishra -- whose son Ashish Mishra has been arrested in the case amid accusations that he ran over the farmers -- Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the victims' families "want justice, not money".
"There was no justice in a case of a massacre in Sonbhadra when I started working... There was no justice in the Unnao or the Hathras case (where a Dalit woman was gangraped and killed)... The situation in this case is similar," she said at the "Kisan Nyay" (Justice for farmers) rally.
"The people there (at Lakhimpur Kheri) also say that they do not expect justice. Police is inviting criminals to talk to us, this has not happened anywhere in the world," she quoted the farmers as saying.
"When Corona came, the public was stricken. They did not expect that this government would not help in the crisis," she added.
"India got freedom based on the principle of justice… but victims' families have no hope for justice in Uttar Pradesh," she added.
The Congress's leader in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Ms Gandhi Varda was detained on Monday while on way to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of four farmers, who had been crushed by a vehicle allegedly being driven by Ashish Mishra. Four others had died in the violence and arson that followed.
The minister's son -- who has denied any wrongdoing -- was arrested yesterday amid countrywide outrage and questions on whether the police was giving him preferential treatment.
The Congress and most opposition parties have been demanding the resignation of the minister, who has also said that he was not present at the spot on Sunday. But government sources ruled it out after his meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah earlier this week.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, lodged at a guest house in Sitapur since her arrest on Monday, was released to join the Congress team, which met the families of 19-year-old Lovepreet Singh and Raman Kashyap, the 30-year-old local journalist who also died that day.
While visiting the family of 19-year-old Lovepreet Singh on Wednesday, Ms Gandhi Vadra said, "These families don't want compensation, they want justice. It can't be possible unless Ajay Mishra resigns as Minister of State for Home. Impartial probe is not possible under him".
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