Rahul Gandhi added another lie to his long list of lies when he said that his sister Priyanka was illegally arrested by UP police. Referring to Priyanka Vadra being stopped from visiting Sonbhadra and taken to a guest house by police in UP, the former Congress president tweeted that “the illegal arrest of Priyanka in Sonbhadra, UP, is disturbing”.
The illegal arrest of Priyanka in Sonbhadra, UP, is disturbing. This arbitrary application of power, to prevent her from meeting families of the 10 Adivasi farmers brutally gunned down for refusing to vacate their own land, reveals the BJP Govt’s increasing insecurity in UP. pic.twitter.com/D1rty8KJVq
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 19, 2019
He alleged that it was an arbitrary application of power by the administration, which reveals increasing insecurity in UP.
But the fact is, Priyanka Vadra has not been arrested. In fact, UP police had said that she was not even detained by police. She was stopped from going to the area in Sonbhadra district where 10 persons were shot down and many more were injured, and was taken to a state guest house.
On 17th July, around 300 armed men of a gram Pradhan had opened fire on tribal people who were protesting against the illegal occupation of their land. Today Priyanka Vadra had met the injured persons in BHU hospital in Varanasi, and when she was on her way to Sonbhadra to meet to families of victims, she was stopped by police. The administration has imposed prohibitory order under section 144, and the convoy of the Congress leader was not allowed to go there as a preventive measure.
The situation is very tense after the massacre, and the administration does not want anything that can provoke retaliatory violence. Therefore, no political party is allowed to visit the site for the time being. District administrations have the right to impose such preventive measures to maintain law and order, and it is not an arbitrary application of power a Rahul Gandhi alleges. It may be noted the two main political parties in the state, SP and BSP have not attempted to violate prohibitory orders realising the gravity of the situation, but the Congress general secretary tried to visit the site.
Rahul Gandhi’s ally in Bengal Mamata Banerjee regularly imposes such restrictions in WB. The WB government regularly stops BJP MPs from visiting even their own constituencies citing law and order situation, but Rahul Gandhi remains silent on such situations. But when a Congress leader is just stopped from violating section 144, he lies by terming it ‘illegal arrest’.
