The members of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress, Sunday, breached Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s fortified convey to hurl eggs at his vehicle in Bhubneshwar, Odisha. The Congress members reportedly poured ink and showed black flags to him outside Biju Patnaik International Airport here.
A police source was quoted as saying that one of the NSUI workers threw eggs at the car in which Mishra was travelling near the airport’s Biju Patnaik Square.“Two eggs hit the windowpane of the car,” said the police source.
#LakhimpurKheriViolence: Congress workers in #Odisha hurled eggs at Union MoS home Ajay Mishra’s vehicle outside Biju Patnaik International Airport in #Bhubaneswar. pic.twitter.com/TYLWEzBHGE
— TOI Bhubaneswar (@TOIBhubaneswar) October 31, 2021
Mishra was on a one-day tour to the state to attend the Central Industrial Security Force’s function at Mundali near Cuttack where he inaugurated two barracks.
“The minister should resign immediately. The way he has been trying to shield the crime of his son Ashis is unfortunate. We are opposed to his visit to the state and will also oppose other Union ministers’ visit to the state,” said the Congress youth wing president Dr Smurti Ranjan Lenka.
‘Congress is doing politics on the issue’, BJP in Odisha slams Congress for politicising the Lakhimpur Kheri incident
According to reports, the incident sparked tensions outside the Bhubneshwar airport Chhak, prompting authorities to detain certain members of Congress in order to avoid any untoward incident.
Condemning the incident, the state BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra said that Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish has already been arrested. Congress is politicising the Lakhipur Kheri incident. “Ashis has already been arrested. Congress is doing politics on the issue,” said Mohapatra.
How the Congress party milked the Lakhimpur Kheri incident
As mentioned by the BJP spokesperson, the Congress party, since the very start, brazenly politicised the unfortunate tragedy witnessed in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3, so as to extract political mileage out of it.
Just months before the crucial assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, several Congress leaders, including Gandhi scions Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, launched a concerted onslaught on the Yogi Adityanath government. The state of Uttar Pradesh is set to vote in early 2022, and Congress leaders did not want to lose out on the opportunity to put pressure on the Yogi government over the violence that had erupted in Lakhimpur Village on Sunday, October 3, 2021, where a clash between ‘protesting’ farmers and BJP workers had led to the death of 8 people.
On October 6, when the scars of the incident were still fresh, the Congress scion, Rahul Gandhi, convened a press conference and spoke on the violence that erupted in Lakhimpur Village. Going by his penchant, he continued to peddle lies during the press conference to fan unrest. He called the incidence a systematic attack against the farmers.
However, as per Minister of State A K Mishra, the ‘farmers’ pelted stones and attacked the convoy. Because of this, the driver lost control and the car overturned killing two ‘protestors’. Angered, the ‘farmers’ then attacked the BJP workers killing at least four BJP workers.
Irrespective of the facts being in the public domain, Congress continued to milk the situation for political points. They went to the extent of justifying the mob lynching of BJP workers in Lakhimpur Kheri. Congress leader Kamru Choudhary in a debate on Times Now had justified the brutal mob lynching of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) workers, branding them as ‘murderers’ who deserved it.
Choudhary in a rather appalling statement declared the BJP workers as criminals and said, “They do not deserve any sympathy or compensation.”
Priyanka Gandhi too, in her desperation to prowl for issues that could be exploited to corner the Yogi administration and brighten Congress’ otherwise gloomy prospects in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, decided to politicise the incident after having pulled a similar kind of PR stunt in Hathras, another UP town which was convulsed by the gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl in October 2020.
As she tried to enter Lakhimpur Kheri on the night of October 3, the police stopped her. While UP Police was trying to detain the Congress leader, she threatened the officers that she would file cases of molestation and kidnapping against them.
Video of Gandhi went viral on social media platforms where she was seen threatening the Police. Later on, permission was granted and Priyanka Gandhi was released.
But as Priyanka Gandhi was prevented from entering the village and detained by police officials, the Congress ecosystem went into overdrive to turn her into a hero. Before long, social media websites were replete with posts speculating if Priyanka Gandhi’s visit to Lakhimpur Kheri is her “Belchi moment.”
This was not the end of Congress’s efforts to politicize this issue. The party’s friendly media had also worked hard to turn the situation to Congress’ benefit by peddling phoney and misleading news around the incident.
In fact, the situation was such that ‘no to your fake sympathies’ posters had greeted Rahul Gandhi in Lucknow during his much-hyped political tourism to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet families of deceased farmers. The family members of the victims had requested Rahul and the opposition not to politicize the issue.
While Congress continued to play vulture politics, the Uttar Pradesh police, on October 9, arrested Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra in connection to the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. The minister’s son was charged with murder.
A police official informed that a nine-member investigation committee was constituted that prepared 40 questions for Ashish. Reportedly, Mishra failed to clarify his location at the time of the incident. His driver, Ankit Das, has also been taken into custody. He has provided many videos in a pen drive to the police as evidence that he was not present on the site.
Meanwhile, certain sections of the media had claimed he had fled to Nepal to evade questioning and arrest.
