Since the end of November, hundreds of farmers have converged in and around Delhi to protest against the Centre’s newly passed, contentious farm laws. With multiple rounds of talks having proved inconclusive, various farm groups have now called for a Bharat Bandh on December 8 – a move that has been supported by a massive number of opposition parties across the country.
In Uttar Pradesh, alongside lending support to the strike, leaders of the Samajwadi Party were slated to visit Kannauj and stage a demonstration in in support of the farmers. Since morning however, there had been police deployment outside Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s residence at Vikramaditya Marg. And as the day progressed, officials took Samajwadi Party MLCs Rajpal Kashyap and Aashu Malik into custody while they were trying to visit party office at Vikramaditya Marg.
Since then, there have been several updates. “Our workers have protested at several locations. They (Police) can put us in jail if they want. They’ve stopped our vehicles. We’ll walk,” SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was quoted as saying by ANI on Monday afternoon.
Soon after that, Yadav and party workers were photographed staging a sit-in protest. According to reports, he had broken the security cordon to sit on dharna in the heart of Lucknow to express solidarity with farmers protesting against the farm bills.
The dharna however was short lived, as Yadav was eventually detained by the police. Visuals shared by the party’s Twitter handle show the politician being made to sit in a police vehicle.
According to reports, Yadav has also written to the Lok Sabha Speaker objecting to the restrictions placed on his movement from the party office to Kannauj.
BRK: @samajwadiparty national president @yadavakhilesh writes a scathing letter to Lok Sabha speaker while objecting to restriction on his movement from his party office at Vikramditya Marg in Lucknow to Kannauj.
Ex UP CM was to participate in protests. pic.twitter.com/hdXrg3BQRv
— Rohan Dua (@rohanduaTOI) December 7, 2020
Source: Free Press Journal
