The violence in Lakhimpur Kheri village that resulted in the death of 8 people, including ‘protesting’ farmers and BJP workers, has galvanised the opposition leaders who are leaving no stone unturned to exploit the situation and draw political mileage out of it.
After Priyanka Gandhi, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi, and several other politicians had tried to use the deaths of ‘protesting’ farmers and BJP workers in Lakhimpur Kheri to revive their political fortunes ahead of the all-important UP assembly polls scheduled to take place early next year.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also jumped in the fray when he convened a press conference on Wednesday and spoke on the violence that erupted in Lakhimpur Village on Sunday, October 3, 2021.
Attacking the central government over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the Gandhi scion said it is a systematic attack against the farmers. Gandhi further added that he will try to visit Lakhimpur Kheri along with two chief ministers to meet the families of those farmers who were killed on Sunday.
Farmers are being mowed down by a jeep, they’re being murdered, the name of a union minister & his son is coming up in this incident (Lakhimpur Kheri). Y’day, PM visited Lucknow but he didn’t visit Lakhimpur Kheri. It’s a systematic attack on farmers: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi pic.twitter.com/ajyrCdt8Dx
— ANI (@ANI) October 6, 2021
“Farmers are being mowed down by a jeep, they’re being murdered, the name of a union minister & his son is coming up in this incident (Lakhimpur Kheri). Yesterday, PM visited Lucknow but he didn’t visit Lakhimpur Kheri. It’s a systematic attack on farmers,” Gandhi said in addressing the press conference.
“Today, with two CMs we will visit Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh to understand the situation there and support the farmers’ families. Yes, Priyanka has been put under detention (in Sitapur) but this is a matter relating to the farmers,” Gandhi added.
While Rahul Gandhi tries to insinuate the flare-up was a part of a predetermined plan, with the involvement of BJP leaders, it is worth noting that the facts of the matter so far available in the public domain do not jibe with the Gandhi scion’s insinuations.
Facts of the Lakhimpur Kheri village do not fit with Rahul Gandhi’s allegations
On Sunday eight people had died after protesting ‘farmers’ attacked BJP workers at Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh. Several media organisations reported the sequence of events that led to the attack on the BJP workers and the ensuing violence that saw a car of BJP workers set on fire.
According to a News18 report, the driver Hari Om Mishra was driving the vehicle which got pelted with stones. Reports say that he was hit on his head by the stone, he lost balance and the vehicle turned over which crushed at least two farmers
In the same vehicle were two BJP functionaries, agitated farmers dragged the three of them, hit them with sticks and stones. Their vehicle was then set on fire. A local journalist named Raman Kashyap was also reportedly attacked by the mob. All four unfortunately succumbed to their injuries.
Several videos are available that show the so-called ‘farmers’ mercilessly thrashing the occupants of the vehicle. The murderous mob had beaten them to death and set the vehicle on fire.
However, soon enough a hazy image of a man driving the car with a broken windshield that ‘ran over’ the farmers, presumably as the driver lost control of the car was bandied around by some journalists as that of Ashish Mishra, son of MoS A K Mishra to allege that the BJP leader wantonly mowed down the farmers beneath the car.
Was the car driven by MoS AK Mishra’s son? Here’s what we know
Before long, the narrative that the car was driven by Ashish Mishra, son of MoS AK Mishra, gathered steam as Congress ecosystem members and sympathisers proceeded to dehumanise the BJP workers who died in the attack and instead blame the party for unleashing violence against the farmers.
Multiple video clips emerged from the incident, but not a single one of them showed Ashish Mishra very clearly. Surely there would be a clearer image instead of an extremely blurred image which the opposition claims are that of Ashish Mishra.
Moreover, Ashish Mishra gave multiple statements to multiple media houses on the day of violence. Not a single one of them shows him being injured or even grazed, nor any specs of blood on his pristine white shirt.
Rahul Gandhi mimicks the propaganda that dehumanises BJP lives and exonerates ‘protesting’ farmers who allegedly instigated the violence
Logic dictates that when the car is attacked by stones, sticks and windshield is broken from the driver’s side enough to get him to lose control, he would himself very likely have some injuries. Secondly, when such a murderous, bloodthirsty mob is waiting with tempers running high, did the mob just let Mishra get away without a scratch? No scuffle? Mishra just miraculously ‘escaped’ from the mob, the Congress ecosystem wants us to believe.
In addition to this, his father, MoS A K Mishra has repeatedly affirmed that his son was not even present at the place where the incident took place. But the propagandists have not let the facts come in their way of agenda. Despite evidence suggesting to the contrary, the opposition party leaders are milking the situation by somehow linking the attack to the BJP and exonerating the ‘protesting’ farmers.
Rahul Gandhi also seems to be mimicking this narrative where BJP workers are dehumanised, their lives disregarded and their deaths swept under the carpet so that rampaging farmers can be given a clean chit and the central government could be implicated of employing heavy-handed means against ‘innocent’ citizens.
