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BJP’s Sumit Jaiswal reveals what happened during Lakhimpur violence, says vehicle was hit with sticks and stones amid ‘maaro, maaro’ chants

OpIndia Staff
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BJP’s Sumit Jaiswal reveals what happened during Lakhimpur violence, says vehicle was hit with sticks and stones amid ‘maaro, maaro’ chants

Sumit Jaiswal was earlier spotted running away from the Lakhimpur violence in a video. Earlier, it was then claimed that the man in the video was the son of the Union Minister Ajay Mishra, but it turned out that the person in the video was actually Sumit Jaiswal.

Aaj Tak reached out to Jaiswal who also happened to be an an eye-witness of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Jaiswal gave his version of the series of events that led to the Lakhimpur incident.

He said ‘We were present at the function where deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya was about to arrive, the function was going on at the place and when it was announced that he was about to reach Singahi, we moved towards the Kalecharan mor to receive him, then some protesters were protesting ahead of Tigunia, when we reached near them and the vehicle moved in the midst of the crowd, then they started hitting the vehicle with sticks chanting ‘Maaro, Maaro’.’

He continued, ‘Those people did not even look like they were from our town or district because the people from our district never dressed like that, and how those people acted with violence, they looked determined to attack the vehicle and the stones that were being pelted broke the windows of the vehicle, and when the windows broke, the driver Hari Om who was driving the vehicle got hit in the eye or the head and the vehicle stopped uncontrollably near a corner. As soon as the the vehicle stopped, the crowd surrounded the driver and got him off the vehicle and started attacking him.’

Jaiswal said that everyone in the crowd carried sharp weapons and looked prepared to launch a big attack. He somehow then managed to escape from the vehicle. He then also asserted that he did not think those people were farmers because they have killed Shubham Kumar who was also from a farmer family. Jaiswal also added that even he belonged to a farmer family and that most of the people in their districts were farmers. He said that it was impossible for a farmer to commit such kind of monstrosity.

Jaiswal also added that the manner in which Shubham Mishra was killed was shocking and that Mishra was hit repeatedly on his head. He said that the murder could not be committed by farmers and that darker forces were behind the incident. Jaiswal is a BJP worker and a member of the Nagar Palika Parishad Lakhimpur from Shivpuri.

Jaiswal is a close associate of Aashish and is often spotted with him at various events. He has also registered a complaint in connection with the violence at Lakhimpur Kheri. In his complaint, he has accused 10-15 unnamed individuals of murder, criminal conspiracy and numerous other sections.

The Challenge: Russia sends actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko to shoot the first ever movie in space

OpIndia Staff
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The Challenge: Russia sends actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko to shoot the first ever movie in space

Roscosmos Russia launched Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft with the crew consisting of cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko to shoot the movie ‘The Challenge’, the first movie ever to be shot in space. Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft had successfully docked to the Russian segment of the International Space Station completing two orbits around the Earth.

Roscosmos also released the official video of the launch.

The historic Soyuz MS-19 project is the first ever attempt made to shoot a movie in space. The 12 days mission is aimed at shooting parts of the movie “The Challenge” for which the cast received a year long extensive training. The rocket with the crew of Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Project Soyuz MS-19 marks another milestone in the Russia-US space exploration rivalry. According to reports, the movie “The Challenge” is to depict story of a doctor, played by actress Yulia Peresild, about to travel to the space station with the purpose of saving a cosmonaut’s life. Cosmonaut crew members would also be a part of the film.

Hockey India pulls out of Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, blames UK’s discriminatory quarantine and ‘worst in Europe’ Covid record

OpIndia Staff
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Hockey India pulls out of Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, blames UK’s discriminatory quarantine and ‘worst in Europe’ Covid record

Hockey India has announced that Indian Hockey teams will not participate in the Commonwealth Games at Birmingham in the United Kingdom due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation and focus on the Asian Games instead. In a statement, Hockey India remarked that UK has been the worst affected country in Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hockey India said in a statement, “As you aware that the Commonwealth Games are schedule in Birmingham, England from 28 July to 08 August 2022 and the Asian Games are schedules in Hangzhou, China from 10 to 25 September 2022. There is an only a 32 day window between the conclusions of the Commonwealth Games before the start of the Asian Games. You will also appreciate the Asian Games is the continental qualification event for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and keeping the priority of the Asian Games in mind, Hockey India cannot take a risk for any members of the Indian Teams contracting COVID-19 during the above the Commonwealth Games (sic).”

Source: Prasar Bharti

“It is pertinent to mention that due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, England have issued guidelines that 10 days quarantine is required Indians arrivals in England even for those who are fully vaccinated, since unfortunately the Indian vaccinations are not yet recognized by the English government. Such discriminatory restrictions were not imposed on Indian athletes and officials during the recent Tokyo Olympic Games and this 10 days quarantine requirement for vaccinated sports persons will affect their performances. We feel these restrictions are biased against India and term it as very unfortunate (sic),” the statement added.

Consequently, Hockey India has requested that reserve teams be identified for the Commonwealth Games. Earlier, India had imposed reciprocal measures on traveler from the United Kingdom in response to UK’s refusal to recognise Indian vaccine certificates. After the measures were imposed, visitors from UK will need to quarantine themselves for 10 days and subject themselves to RT-PCR tests after arriving in India.

‘I take care of things at home, so husband can concentrate more on cases’: Meet Sameer Wankhede, husband of actress Kranti Redkar, who busted Bollywood drugs links

OpIndia Staff
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‘I take care of things at home, so husband can concentrate more on cases’: Meet Sameer Wankhede, husband of actress Kranti Redkar, who busted Bollywood drugs links

Sameer Wankhede, Zonal Director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), has gained a lot of attention for the operation in which the NCB raided a rave party organized at a cruise ship in Mumbai and detained Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan. NCB arrested Aryan Khan later and reportedly recovered drugs from his lens case.

Officer Wankhede is not a novice when it comes to high profile investigations. He has also investigated the Sushant Singh Rajput case after the drug angle was revealed and probed Rhea Chakraborty and others involved in the case.

Sameer Wankhede, a 2008 batch IRS-C&CE officer, was previously posted as Joint Director of Revenue Intelligence in Mumbai. He also held the post of Additional SP in NIA and Deputy Commissioner in AIU. Wankhede’s first posting was as a Customs Officer at Mumbai Airport. He was also honored by the Union Home Ministry with the award of Outstanding Investigation for the year 2021.

Sameer Wankhede’s team has seized drugs worth Rs 17,000 crore in the last two years of investigation. According to reports, Wankhede also filed cases against more than 2000 celebrities for not paying tax in customs. Sameer Wankhede also caught Mika Singh with foreign currency at Mumbai airport in 2013 and raided the houses of many Bollywood celebs including Anurag Kashyap, Vivek Oberoi, Ram Gopal Varma.

Meanwhile, the NCB officer Sameer Wankhede is married to the Marathi actress Kranti Redkar who also starred in the 2003 bollywood film ‘Gangajal’ along with Ajay Devgan. On being asked about her husband’s recent raids, Kranti Redkar said, “Sameer has always been a hard worker. His operations and cases were there even before too. Today, he is dealing with Bollywood-related drug probe cases, which is why it is getting highlighted. I give him his space when he is investigating or working on operations. I never ask him what happened, how it happened because I respect the secrecy of his job. I take care of everything at home, which is why he can concentrate on his cases more.”

After the raid on the cruise Ship rave party, NCB seized a huge amount of narcotics and detained 10 people. The ship was supposedly going from Mumbai to Goa. According to reports, every person present in that party had paid a entry fee of more than 80 thousand rupees. As per sources, Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede and other NCB officials acted on an intelligence input and boarded the ship as normal passengers and carried out the operation.

Following the raid, there have been allegations that Wankhede is selectively targeting Aryan Khan. However, he said in a statement, “We are not targeting anyone at all. We have nothing against him. We have arrested more than 300 people in the last 10 months. Out of those, at the most, there would be about 4 to 5 known people. How can you say that we are targeting anyone? Most of those arrested in the last one year are hard-core, drug related criminals.”

Was the man in the viral video on the basis of which the arrest of Ajay Mishra’s son is being demanded really him? Fact Check

OpIndia Staff
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Was the man in the viral video on the basis of which the arrest of Ajay Mishra’s son is being demanded really him? Fact Check

A video is doing the rounds of the internet where it is claimed that it shows the son of cabinet minister Ajay Mishra running away from the scene after their car runs over ‘farmer protesters’. The claim is being made by opposition parties and spread by ‘journalists’ who are sympathetic to their cause.

The video is being used to demand Aashish Mishra’s arrest over the matter. The video is only a few seconds long but people are making far reaching conclusions based on it. The Manipur Pradesh Congress Sevadal has shared the video to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Tauquir Alam, secretary of the Congress party, too, made the same claim.

Deepak Sharma, editor at Desh 24×7, made the claim and claimed that videos from the scene confirm the presence of Ajay Mishra’s son at the spot. Propagandist Rohini Singh retweeted the claim on Twitter.

Screenshot source: @iAnkurSingh/Twitter

However, an investigation by Navbharat Times has revealed that the person in the video is not Aashish Mishra but Sumit Jaiswal. The report by NT said that the body structure of the person in the video does not match the physical built of Aashish Mishra.

While the person in the video is lean and tall, Aashish Mishra is rather short and broader than the person. However, the physical structure matches with Sumit Jaiswal. Jaiswal is a BJP worker and a member of the Nagar Palika Parishad Lakhimpur from Shivpuri.

Jaiswal is a close associate of Aashish and is often spotted with him at various events. He has also registered a complaint in connection with the violence at Lakhimpur Kheri. In his complaint, he has accused 10-15 unnamed individuals of murder, criminal conspiracy and numerous other sections.

Congress and AAP share an edited video of PM Modi’s interaction with beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana to malign the Modi govt

OpIndia Staff
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Congress and AAP share an edited video of PM Modi’s interaction with beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana to malign the Modi govt

Social media is rife with a video of PM Modi’s interaction with a woman who denies having received benefits of schemes launched by the central government. The clip that is being shared online is 8 seconds long in which PM Modi asks the woman if she had received any benefits and the lady replies back that she had not received any benefits from the said scheme.

The video was shared by the official Twitter account of the Aam Aadmi Party. The caption to the tweet by AAP said: “The reason why PM Modi never addressed a press conference.”

The video was also shared by Congress functionaries. Hasiba Amin, National Convenor of Congress Social Media, also uploaded the clip on her Twitter account along with a moralising tweet.

“So this happened while PM was interacting with people from UP. Try to script and control narrative all you want, the truth does eventually come out,” Amin tweeted along with the video clip.

Before long, the video was shared by a raft of social media users, asserting that the video is a testament to the fact that schemes launched by the Centre have not reached the intended beneficiaries.

Fact check: Edited clip of PM Modi’s interaction with PM Awas Yojana shared online

The video of PM Modi’s interaction with a woman that is being bandied around on social media websites by overenthusiastic Congress and AAP supporters and leaders is evidently an abridged version of a longer video in which the woman who denies receiving benefits under PM Swanidhi Scheme admits how she and her family had benefited from other schemes launched by the Centre.

The interaction took place on Tuesday when PM Modi participated in Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the celebrations organised to mark the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. He inaugurated ‘Azadi@75 – New Urban India: Transforming Urban Landscape’ Conference-cum-Expo in Lucknow and digitally handed over house keys to 75,000 beneficiaries of Awas Yojana in 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh and interacted virtually with beneficiaries of the scheme in Uttar Pradesh.

The PM interacted with three beneficiaries — Vimlesh of Agra, Ram Janki of Kanpur and Babita of Lalitpur — asked how their lives changed after they got houses under the scheme. During his interaction with Babita from Lalitpur, he enquired about her livelihood and her experience with the scheme. He also said he would ask Yogiji (CM Adityanath) to give him a “chance” to have food at her place.

Here’s the entire conversation of PM Modi with Babita of Lalitpur:

PM Modi asked Babita about her life before she built a pucca house under the PM Awas Yojana. Babita said, “We have had difficulties living in the kaccha house. There were water supply constraints, we could not cook proper food and there were mosquitoes and flies around…now those problems are solved after we built a pucca house.”

When PM Modi asked how much money and through what means she had received monetary help to build her pucca house, Babita said her family had received Rs 2.5 lakhs from the government right in their bank account and they had to pay no middlemen to procure the amount.

“We had launched Jan Dhan Yojana scheme to ensure poor people have a bank account and the subsidy amount could be directly transferred to the intended beneficiary. The technology plays a big role in alleviating problems bedevilling the poor,” said PM Modi and further asking Babita if her husband had availed benefits under PM Swanidhi Yojana for his occupation of rearing goats.

Babita, who was probably unaware of the scheme launched by the central government, said her husband had not received any benefits under the PM SWAnidhi scheme. PM Modi then went on to educate Babita on how she and her family could avail benefits under the PM SWAnidhi Yojana.

PM Swanidhi Yojana, a scheme launched by the Centre for providing affordable Working Capital loans to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown.

Later on, PM Modi further asks Babita if she had received any benefits under the Ujjwala Yojana, a social welfare scheme aimed at distributing LPG connections to women below the poverty line. The woman instantly responds in affirmative, saying that she now cooks food for her family on gas. PM Modi then jocularly asked her what dishes does she cook for her children and said he would ask Yogi Adityanath to give him permission to have food at her place.

AAP and Congress shared conveniently cropped out video to malign the Modi government

The entire conversation with Babita is longer than 4 minutes but the usual suspects, in their bid to show the Modi government in a bad light, trimmed down the video to just 8 seconds to give an impression that the woman had snubbed PM Modi.

Congress and AAP conveniently edited out the part in which the woman lists down the benefits she and her family had received under PM Awas Yojana and PM Ujjwala Yojana to allege that beneficiaries are not receiving any of the benefits of the scheme launched by the central government.

It could be the case that Babita and her family were not aware of the PM SWAnidhi scheme or did not bother to avail its benefits. But the alacrity with which AAP and Congress leaders and supporters are sharing the spurious video indicates that they have little regard for the truth and they would even resort to sharing incomplete and manipulated videos to malign the central government.

Chhattisgarh: Hindu groups reinstall saffron flag at the same spot where Muslim mob had ripped it off, protest against Congress govt

OpIndia Staff
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Chhattisgarh: Hindu groups reinstall saffron flag at the same spot where Muslim mob had ripped it off, protest against Congress govt

A saffron flag was ripped off by a Muslim mob in Kawardha, Chhattisgarh, leading to communal clashes. Now, Hindu youths have once again mounted a saffron flag at the same spot with an image of Ram Bhakt Hanuman on it. The flag was mounted amidst loud cheers in a peaceful manner.

Hindu organisations protested against the Congress government in Kawardha following the clashes. They protested in huge numbers with saffron flags in their hands in front of the police units that patrolled the area. Slogans such as ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ were raised and the devotees offered prayers at the Maa Vindhyavasini Temple as a mark of protest.

While Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupendra Baghel has left for Uttar Pradesh to play politics over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, Hindus in his own state are angry with his administration. In the videos, it can be observed that a huge crowd had gathered to mark their protest.

Earlier, a video had surfaced online that showed a Muslim mob uprooting a saffron flag and tearing it, which ultimately led to stone-pelting and clashes. According to reports, the police had conducted a ”Shanti Samiti” meeting with people on Sunday asking them to remove the religious flags from the Chowk in view of upcoming festivals and in order to maintain peace and harmony. “The groups even agreed to the same, however, some youth from both sides reached the site later and created a ruckus,” one police official had said.

Subsequently, section 144 was imposed on the area. Hindu groups said that the Muslim mob had attacked them but the police, instead of cracking down on the perpetrators of violence, chose to thrash them instead. BJP workers accused Congress of shielding the violent mob using law enforcement as a tool.

SBI card launches 3-day festival offer ‘Dumdaar Dus’ cashback ad, netizens say it caricatures South Indians: Watch

OpIndia Staff
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SBI card launches 3-day festival offer ‘Dumdaar Dus’ cashback ad, netizens say it caricatures South Indians: Watch

Recently, the State Bank of India released two new ad campaigns aimed to promote SBI Card’s online shopping festive offer, ‘Dumdaar Dus’ that commenced on 3rd October 2021. Both ad campaigns featuring actor Javed Jaaferi intended to give a peek into SBI Card’s festive offer. However, one of the ads has drawn flak from Netizens for caricaturing South Indians.

The SBI ad that has drawn flak for stereotyping South Indians

In the commercial, actor-comedian Javed Jaaferi is portrayed as a South Indian tabla instructor, teaching a group of children. Along with vibhuti on his forehead and traditional attire, the ad-makers visibly darkened the actor’s skin tone and gave him a curly hairdo, which miffed social media users.

Scientist and author Anand Ranganathan took to Twitter to slam the ad. He said, “A curly haired, buck-toothed, vibhuthi sporting muppet with a clownish accent – just how long will you carry on stereotyping us South Indians through such buffoonery. Mehmood began the damn trend with Padosan. It continues 50 years on”.

The Netizens fumed at SBI for stereotyping the South Indians. Arun Pudur, the founder and group president of Celframe Corporation slammed the country’s largest public-sector bank for making a racist advertisement.

He also slammed the bank for choosing actor Javed Jaaferi as its brand ambassador, whom he called a serial abuser.

“Disgusting stereotyping South Indians as Curly hair clowns. Much worst is using a Hindu hating & serial abuser Javeed Jafazri as ambassador. What an utter shame @TheOfficialSBI”. Tagging the chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar and India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the businessman questioned the working of India’s public sector banks.

Here it may be recalled, how in January, last year, Javed Jaaferi was called out for posting a tweet where he made a shocking comment that India has become the most dangerous place to live in. Jaaferi had said that this had been found in a survey, and he had quoted a report by an obscure Pakistani website to make the claim. 

Meanwhile, another angry Twitter user replied to Arun Pudur’s Tweet by claiming that this ad would compel him to close his account with SBI.

Fuming at the bank’s campaign, a Twitter user asked “All Citizens from other Religions should close their Accounts with this Sharia bank”.

Similarly, another Twitter user wrote: “Shame on you SBI and Javed Jaffery for the racist Ad – We South India proud out skin Tone – Culture and traditions – When will Bigots like you will stop Rascism against South Indians – When was last time you met a South India like in the Ad – SBI Shame on you”.

People on YouTube were also not impressed with SBI for the ad, typecasting South Indians.

YouTube users react to SBI’s ad

Despite, attracting the wrath of Netizens, SBI has not yet issued an official statement regarding its recent ad campaign.

‘Pfizer now runs on Covid money’: New Project Veritas video shows scientists saying Pfizer vaccine is useless when people have natural antibodies

OpIndia Staff
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‘Pfizer now runs on Covid money’: New Project Veritas video shows scientists saying Pfizer vaccine is useless when people have natural antibodies

On October 5 (Local Time), Project Veritas released another video in its Covid-19 investigative series with clips from some scientists working for Pfizer. The officials were heard saying that the antibodies built after contracting Covid-19 are “probably better than the vaccination”.

One of the Pfizer scientists, identified as Nick Karl, said that in case someone has natural immunity, that means if they had contracted Covid-19, there is a high probability that they have more antibodies against the virus. He added that in such cases, the person is at a better position in terms of antibodies compared to what he could get from the vaccine. Karl is one of the scientists who is directly involved in the production of the Covid-19 vaccine at Pfizer, as per Project Veritas.

He said, “When somebody is naturally immune — like they got COVID — they probably have more antibodies against the virus…When you actually get the virus, you’re going to start producing antibodies against multiple pieces of the virus…So, your antibodies are probably better at that point than the [COVID] vaccination.”

Karl added that what the (Pfizer) vaccine gives a person is antibodies that develop based on just a part of the virus. When someone gets the virus, they start producing antibodies against multiple pieces of the virus.

However, Karl added that the vaccine mandate was a positive step for society. He said, “The city [of New York] needs like vax cards and everything. It’s just about making it so inconvenient for unvaccinated people to the point where they’re just like, ‘F*ck it. I’ll get it.’ You know?”

Pfizer Senior Associate Scientist Chris Croce was caught on a hidden camera saying that if a person has natural Covid-19 antibodies, that person is protected for a longer period compared to the antibodies gained via a vaccine. He also called Pfizer ‘an evil corporation’.

He said, “I still feel like I work for an evil corporation because it comes down to profits in the end. I mean, I’m there to help people, not to make millions and millions of dollars. So, I mean, that’s the moral dilemma… Basically, our organization is run on COVID money now,” Croce said that the immunity that a person gets after contracting the Covid-19 virus is the result of the natural response of the body.

When Veritas journalist asked him about the monoclonal antibody treatments, Croce said that it was pushed aside because of the cost involved. Notably, monoclonal antibody treatments are a way of treating Covid-19 that aims at reducing hospitalizations, viral loads and severity of the disease. It depends on the monoclonal antibodies that are similar to the ones that the body naturally makes in response to an infection.

Pfizer Scientist Rahul Khandke admitted that the scientists had been asked to keep the information from the public. He said, “We’re bred and taught to be like, ‘vaccine is safer than actually getting COVID.’ Honestly, we had to do so many seminars on this. You have no idea. Like, we have to sit there for hours and hours and listen to like — be like, ‘you cannot talk about this in public.” He added, “If you have [COVID] antibodies built up, you should be able to prove that you have those built up.”

Experts had categorically vouched against natural immunity

US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci in September had said even if the person had Covid-19 in the past, there was no surity if the person would be protected for an indefinite amount of time. He said, “So it is conceivable that you got infected, you’re protected, but you may not be protected for an indefinite amount of time. So, I think that is something that we need to sit down and discuss seriously because you very appropriately pointed out, it is an issue and there could be an argument saying what you said.” He was responding to a study in Israel that pointed out that natural immunity was better compared to the vaccine.

In the same month, a study published by CDC claimed over 35% of cases did not develop antibodies after contracting the disease. Based on that study and studies done by Pfizer and Moderna, a paper published in Nebraska Medicine claimed that natural immunity is not better than the vaccine. It also pointed out another CDC study that claimed unvaccinated individuals with a history of contracting Covid-19 has 2.34 times more chance of contracting the disease again.

Ahead of his meeting with Amit Shah, Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi uses Lakhimpur Kheri violence to demand a rollback of three farm laws

Jinit Jain
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Ahead of his meeting with Amit Shah, Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi uses Lakhimpur Kheri violence to demand a rollback of three farm laws

In what seems like a veiled threat to the central government, Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday tried to use the Lakhimpur Kheri violence as leverage to demand the invalidation of three farm laws.

Ahead of his meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah, Channi said three agriculture laws should be immediately repealed and incidents like the Lakhimpur Kheri violence should be stopped. He said he would discuss the incident during his meeting with the Union Minister.

Channi is tentatively scheduled to meet Amit Shah at 6 in the evening. This will be Channi’s first meeting with the Union Home Minister after being elected to the Punjab CM position on September 20 after Captain Amarinder Singh tendered his resignation following a prolonged conflict with then Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu and some other leaders.

Earlier yesterday, Channi, along with his cabinet colleagues, met governor Banwarilal Purohit and submitted a memorandum marked to PM Modi, asking him to direct the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure justice is delivered to the families of victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

In the memorandum, the CM also sought the annulment of the three agriculture laws.

Violence in Lakhimpur Kheri

On October 3, eight people died after BJP workers were attacked by protesting ‘farmers’ at Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh. As per reports, a large group of alleged farmers had gathered in Lakhimpur Kheri to mark their protest against the three Agriculture laws enacted in September last year. Deputy CM was scheduled to visit Lakhimpur Kheri. The protesters went violent and pelted stones at BJP’s convey.

One of the cars allegedly hit the protestors, after which the protestors not only burnt two vehicles but also ambushed the people and beat the occupants of the vehicle to death. Disturbing visuals had emerged of the incident that led to several speculations. CM Yogi promised to take strict action against whoever was behind the incident. A heavy police force was deployed in Lakhimpur Kheri to maintain law and order.

Opposition parties unite to exploit Lakhimpur Kheri violence to undermine Yogi Adityanath government ahead of UP assembly polls

Channi’s meeting with Union Minister Home Minister Amit Shah is seen as a part of a concerted attempt by the opposition parties to corner the central government on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, months before assembly elections are scheduled to take place in Uttar Pradesh. From Priyanka Gandhi’s theatrics to Akhilesh Yadav’s insistence on visiting the village, to the Aam Aadmi Party’s rhetorics on the violence that engulfed the village in the wake of attack unleashed by ‘protesting’ farmers, the otherwise fragmented opposition parties seemed to be united in their objective of besmirching the Yogi Adityanath’s impressive governance record in Uttar Pradesh by insinuating involvement of his administration in stoking violence.

Separately, the incident has also, in part, afforded the Congress party time to set its house in order in Punjab, which was in flux after Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu submitted his resignation on September 28, barely 10 days after Captain Amarinder Singh resigned from the post of Punjab CM amidst enduring disagreement within the party. Channi was then selected as the chief minister to lead the state even though speculations were rife that the position was a mere nominal post, with Sidhu being the acting chief and the person at the helm of affairs in Punjab.

Even so, Gandhis were not sure whether a change in guard in Punjab would iron out the many problems facing the party. With the fallout with Captain Amarinder Singh fresh in mind, Gandhis were reluctant to give free rein to new CM Charanjit Singh Channi and Navjot Singh Sidhu, lest other leaders in the state mimic Singh and start submitting their resignations. From administrative shuffle to the appointment of bureaucrats to the selection of ministers in the new Punjab Cabinet, Gandhis were reportedly having a say in all decisions concerning the state. The decision to take absolute control in Punjab state stemmed from the bad optics the party attracted in the wake of the unceremonious removal of Captain Amarinder Singh from the post of the chief minister.

But this decision was beset with another set of problems as Sidhu felt smothered and helpless operating under the shadows of the Gandhis. And shortly later, he decided he can no longer put up with the indignity meted out on him by the Gandhis and resigned from the post of Pradesh Congress Committee chief. With the focus shifted to the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, the Congress party is desperately seeking to bridge the internecine conflicts existing in its ranks and salvaging the party’s only remaining bastion, which is also set to go to polls early next year.

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