LUCKNOW, June 4: Irked over the destruction of the statue of former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna awardee Rajiv Gandhi in Mirzapur after the visit of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, state Congress unit has announced to launch a state-wide protest from tomorrow.
“The present situation in UP is very conceding as their is no respect or honour for great personalities. Rajiv Gandhi was not only a Congress leader but a person who and his family sacrificed their lives for the country. We condemn the incident and demand immediate arrest of the culprits,” said UP Congress president Raj Babbar here today.
Mr Babbar, who is rushing to Mirzapur tomorrow morning, announced that a state wide protest would be held tomorrow against the incident.
The statue, installed at a park at Awas Vikas colony in Mirzapur city, was found beheaded this morning by Congress supporters. Later, the head of the statue was recovered from a drain nearby.
“The anti-social elements had written on the spot: ‘Hamari Sarkar hai, usse Pakistan bhej diya hai(It is our government and we have sent it (the head) to Pakistan),” Mr Babbar said.
A police complaint has also been lodged by the local Congress leader but the police was yet to lodge any formal FIR.
Mr Babbar claimed that Gandhi was instrumental in giving voting rights to youths over 18 years in Panchayati Raj elections and even paved way for IT revolution in the country, but such act by the lumpen elements question about the law and order situation of the state under the BJP regime.
“The incident happened just after UP CM visited the area, which is an alarming issue and proves that there is total anarchy in the state,” he further alleged.
Meanwhile, Mr Babbar, reacting on yesterday’s flip flop on the map controversy, said that it was a printing error.
“Kashmir is an intregal part of the country and Congress supports it since independence,” he said while thanking the media in Lucknow for detecting the mistake in the booklet. (UNI)
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