Reacting to the violence in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri region incident, chief minister Hemant Soren tweeted on Monday night stating, "The heinous incident in #Lakhimpur yesterday is a blot on humanity & a blatant display of majoritarian cruelty by the Ruling Party in UP & at Centre. I strongly condemn their undemocratic attempts to detain all Opposition leaders from meeting the bereaved families of the victims."
It was not just limited to Jarkhand's CM reacting to the violence. JMM and Congress, the ruling coalition partners in Jharkhand, on Monday launched a scathing attack on the BJP led governments at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh over violence in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri region on Sunday in which at least eight persons died including four farmers protesting against the contentious farm laws.
Congress burnt effigies of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath across the state to protest against the incident including the arrest of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and other leaders. Jharkhand Rajya Kisan Sabha, a Left backed farm body, also held similar effigy burning stints at different blocks of Ranchi.
MM on the other hand questioned the stoic silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union home minister Amit Shah as well as of Yogi calling the incident as yet another instance of brutal murder of ‘democracy’.
“Sunday’s violence in Lakhimpur Khera was a pre-planned attempt by BJP to kill farmers to thwart their protests ahead of the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. But what is more shocking is the way opposition leaders including Priyanka Gandhi, two chief ministers—Bhupesh Baghel (Chattisgarh) and Charanjit Singh Channi (Punjab)—were either arrested or denied permission to visit families of the deceased farmer’s is proof enough of how democracy has completely died in Uttar Pradesh. And in India, democracy under the Modi regime is almost on its deathbed,” said JMM’s general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharjee.
He also questioned the silence of BJP’s poster boys while minister of state in union home ministry Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, who along with son Ashish—who are accused of stoking violence—continue to remain free. “UP police has claimed to have initiated FIRs against them, but they are free. On the other hand, opposition leaders are being arrested. Amid all these, the PM, home minister and UP CM, maintain silence. How is an accused minister still in the ministry? This proves BJP’s concern for farmers,” he said. He then quickly added that the only reason why Modi and Shah don’t want to act against him (Ajay Mishra) is because they don’t want to upset bhramin voters before UP polls. He added, “JMM has been supporting farmer’s protest and will continue to support them in all their endeavours against the three black agriculture laws in future too.”
Congress on the other hand hit the streets across different districts and burnt effigies of UP CM. Party president Rajesh Thakur said, “Killing our country’s annadatas (farmers), who are protesting peacefully for the past 10 months, will now prove to be a nail in the coffin for the BJP. We condemn the incident and the arresting of our leaders, who are fighting for the cause of farmers and the marginalised.”
Notably, violence broke out in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday after four farmers with black flags were mowed down by a car linked to Union minister (Ajay Mishra Teni), days after he had warned that the protesters would be fixed in “two minutes” if they did not mend their ways. A total of eight people have died in a clash that followed thereafter.
