New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS) Calling the Lakhimpur Kheri violence unfortunate, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said the opposition parties are politicising the incident.
The BJP Kisan Morcha National President, Rajkumar Chahar told IANS that when an investigation is underway, he failed to understand why opposition leaders are in a hurry to visit Lakhimpur Kheri.
A Lok Sabha member from Fatehpur Sikri, Chahar said, "An unfortunate incident happened and when the state government is taking action, why they (opposition leaders) are so adamant to visit. First let the state government take action and allow families of the deceased victims to hold their last rites after completing the post-mortem. They can visit the area later."
Referring to police action against protesting farmers in Congress-ruled Rajasthan, the BJP leader said, "Congress leaders who are very keen to visit Lakhimpur Kheri have not uttered a single word against police lathicharge on farmers in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan."
Chahar criticised Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's visit to Uttar Pradesh after the violence and said the Congress is starting a new practice against set norms.
"What Congress Chief Minister Baghel is doing is not correct and it will start new practice against the democratic norms. Will they like and allow the Chief Minister of a non-Congress ruled state to visit a Congress-ruled state after any unfortunate incident concerning law and order. It is a dangerous practice started by the Congress Chief Minister and I condemn the interference of a Chief Minister in the matters of another state," he said.
Chahar said the state government has already announced financial assistance to the families of the deceased and a judicial inquiry to find the cause behind the violence as well as provide a job to one member from the families of the deceased.
Nine persons were killed during a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur Kheri which turned violent on Sunday. The Uttar Pradesh government has announced a financial compensation of Rs 45 lakh to the kin of the deceased farmers while assistance of Rs 10 lakh will be given to the injured persons. A judicial inquiry by a retired high court judge has been ordered into the entire sequence of events which led to the violence.
The non-recognition of the Covishield vaccine has impacted the Indians, especially students travelling to the UK. This issue was flagged during the meeting between Indian External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar and UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Monday in Washington DC.
She reached Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, by air in the morning from where she headed straight to her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's cottage located amid forests of pine and cedar on the suburbs of the Himachal Pradesh capital.
Channi took oath of office along with his two deputies -- one a Jat Sikh and another belonging to the Hindu community -- at a simple ceremony here in the Punjab capital that was delayed for 20 minutes owing to the late arrival of party leader Rahul Gandhi.
Jasbir Singh Virk, president of Bhartiya Sikh Sangthan, has underlined the need to intensify the ongoing farmers' agitation and said that there was a need to shore up strength at the Delhi borders.
Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma told IANS that to control infighting in its party state unit, the Congress leadership made Channi ji (Charanjit Singh Channi) the Punjab Chief Minister but insulted the Dalit community by not allowing him to lead the party in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
The government and drug controller's office will have to take a decision on the third booster dose based on data and cases as times goes on and including how effective the vaccine is on the Delta virus variant, he added.
