Will approach SC: Rakesh Tikait on bail to minister's son in Lakhimpur case
Lakhimpur Kheri (PTI): Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday said the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) will approach the Supreme Court over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence episode in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.
Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra 'Teni', is a key accused in the case and the Allahabad High Court granted him bail on February 10. Ashish was expected to walk out of the jail on Tuesday.
Tikait, a prominent face of the farmers' stir and the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which is part of the SKM, also hit out at the BJP amid ongoing assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
The whole country and whole world watched the most infamous Lakhimpur Kheri episode of Ajay Teni and Ashish Teni, who despite having committed a heinous crime gets bail within three months. Everybody is seeing that and he will walk out of jail today, Tikait told reporters, adding the SKM would approach the Supreme Court.
"So is such dictatorial government needed, or this type of system needed in which someone who mows down people under a vehicle walks out of jail within three months. How will they behave with the public in times to come? These are our issues that people need to understand, the farmer leader said.
He claimed there was a power outage during the online court hearing in the case when the prosecution was making its point but the whole point could not be kept before the court.
He further hit out at the BJP-led Centre and the UP government over issues related to the farming community and the youth while also slamming the saffron party for fighting the elections on communal agendas instead of working for development.
Lakhimpur Kheri, known for its sugarcane farming, has eight assembly constituencies of Gola Gokrannath, Dhaurahra, Sri Nagar, Lakhimpur, Mohammdi, Kasta, Palia and Nighasan.
All eight assembly seats, which were won by BJP candidates in 2017, will go to polls on February 23 in the fourth phase of assembly elections in UP.
Election results would be announced on March 10.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
