Bulandshahr violence: My father wanted us to be secular, says son of deceased cop
Lucknow, Dec 4: The son of the police inspector killed in mob violence over alleged cow slaughter in Bulandshahr said his father wanted him to be a good citizen who doesn't provoke violence over religion.
"My father has lost his life in this Hindu-Muslim dispute. Whose father is next?" Abhishek Singh said.
Inspector Subodh Singh, who had initially probed the 2015 lynching of Dadri resident Mohammed Akhlaq over rumours about beef consumption, and a 20-year-old man were killed Monday during an attack on policemen.
The inspector's sister alleged the killing was a conspiracy by the police.
"My brother was killed in a conspiracy by the police as he was probing a cow slaughter case (the Akhlaq lynching case), Sunita Singh told reporters Tuesday.
He should be given a martyr's status and a memorial should be constructed in his name in our native place," she said.
The cow is our mother, I accept that. My brother has given his life for her. The CM used to chant 'gau, gau, gau'. Why can't he come for cow protection? she said in an emotional outburst against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Abhishek Singh said the last time his father called he asked about his studies and if he had eaten.
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'Vote chori' an attack on very idea of India: Siddaramaiah
New Delhi/Bengaluru (PTI): Targeting the ruling BJP at the Centre for the alleged 'vote chori' (vote theft), Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said, fascism does not begin with guns on the streets, it begins with the quiet theft of institutions, the slow manipulation of systems, and finally, the theft of elections.
Terming vote chori as an attack on the very idea of India, he said, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) filing a charge sheet naming a former BJP MLA, his son, and others in Aland constituency in Karnataka, for alleged attempt to delete nearly 6,000 voters' names, makes a significant legal step.
The chief minister was speaking at the Congress' mega rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, against the vote chori.
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"History teaches us that fascism does not begin with guns on the streets, it begins with the quiet theft of institutions, the slow manipulation of systems, and finally, the theft of elections," Siddaramaiah said.
Authoritarian regimes around the world use one core tactic, which is rigging the democratic process while pretending to protect it. This is exactly what the BJP is doing today, he alleged.
"They capture institutions. They intimidate election machinery. They distort voter lists. They suppress turnout in Opposition areas. They violate the level playing field through money and power," he said, adding that "this is not just malpractice. This is vote chori which is an attack on the very idea of India."
Stating that a government born out of "stolen votes" is not a democratic government, the CM said, it is a government that fears the people, manipulates the mandate, and survives only through deceit.
"This is precisely how democracies decline into electoral autocracies. Today BJP's vote chori is the biggest threat to the republic since independence," he said.
Noting that, in these dark times, one leader has stood up with extraordinary courage, and that is Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah said the Congress leader investigated and exposed mismatched voter lists, booth-level manipulation, and patterns that pointed to systematic, organised vote chori.
"In constituency after constituency, from Mahadevapura to Aland, from Haryana to Bihar, he revealed how votes were suppressed, shifted, or diluted, especially in areas that stood with the Congress and INDIA bloc," he said.
The CM pointed out that in Karnataka itself, in the Mahadevapura and Aland assembly segments, serious irregularities were raised by Rahul Gandhi as examples of how vote chori is not an abstract allegation but a lived reality on the ground.
In Mahadevapura, evidence was presented showing thousands of duplicate or fraudulent voter entries and discrepancies in the electoral rolls that correlated with the BJP's narrow edge in the constituency, he said.
In Aland, thousands of attempted deletions of legitimate voters were recorded ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, including an alleged 6,018 applications for deletions, prompting an FIR and SIT investigation, Siddaramaiah further pointed out.
"A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has filed a charge sheet naming seven individuals, including a former BJP MLA and his son, for allegedly attempting to delete nearly 6,000 voters' names from the rolls in Aland constituency, marking a significant legal step in the fight against vote chori," he added.
Highlighting that these exposes shows that Rahul Gandhi has become the moral compass of this republic and a crusader against the vote chori, the CM said, his fight is rooted in constitutional morality, Ambedkarite thought, and the foundational democratic principle that sovereignty belongs to the people, not to a party, not to a regime, and certainly not to those who are willing to steal elections.
"When a young woman waits in line for hours to vote and later finds that her vote has been deleted, she feels cheated. When an elderly farmer wakes up at dawn to cast his vote but finds his name missing, he feels betrayed," he added.
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According to Siddaramaiah, the vote chori is not just about numbers, it is about dignity, it is about equality, and it is about the soul of our republic.
"We must demand: transparent electoral rolls, accountability of election authorities, independent institutions, a voting system people can trust, and a political culture rooted in constitutional values, and we must declare together that -- We will not allow fascism to enter India through the backdoor of vote chori," he said.
Let us rise as one nation, one people, one democracy. Let history record that when the vote chori threatened India, the people stood up, and the people won, he added.
