Former C M Akhilesh Yadav Stopped At Airport to prevent him from attending Allahabad event
LUCKNOW : Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who was stopped by the Uttar Pradesh Police at Lucknow airport on Tuesday, had already been informed by the Allahabad University earlier that no politicians were allowed in any of their programmes. Yadav was heading to Prayagraj to attend a student union function at the university. On Monday, the Registrar of the Allahabad University had written to Yadav’s personal secretary, saying that politicians were not allowed in the university events.
The ‘grounding’ of Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav at Lucknow airport has brought his party workers on the warpath across the state. Mr Yadav was on way to the Allahabad University for a function, but was physically stopped by the police from boarding a special flight to Prayagraj, 200 km from Lucknow. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the government had taken action after a request from the university, which was apprehensive about a law and order situation. Mr Yadav’s party called it an attempt to kill democracy.
Hitting out at Yadav, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the Samajwadi Party should refrain from its anarchist activities. “Allahabad University requested that Akhilesh Yadav’s visit may create law and order problem because of the dispute between student organisations. Hence the government took this step,” Adityanath said.BSP supremo Mayawati said that the incident was extremely condemnable and asked whether the ruling BJP was afraid of their alliance because of which it is “resorting to anti-democratic methods”She described the episode as “an example of total dictatorship of BJP government”.The SP and the BSP recently forged an alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Akhilesh claimed he was stopped at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in a bid to prevent him from visiting Allahabad to attend an oath-taking ceremony at Allahabad University.”The government is afraid of oath ceremony of a student leader and is stopping me at the airport to prevent me from visiting Allahabad,” Yadav claimed.He also posted photographs on his official Twitter handle in which he was seen talking to police officers inside the airport.
Mr Yadav’s tweets on his experience, and the photos and videos posted by his party’s media cell, had also incensed the opposition parties, which took on the ruling BJP in the parliament and the state assembly. In Rajya Sabha, members of the SP and the other opposition parties held protests over the incident, disrupting the House proceedings After a noisy protest in the assembly, Samajwadi Party legislators held a sit-in protest outside the Raj Bhawan against what they called the “undemocratic behaviour” of the BJP government. They relented only after Governor Ram Naik assured them of a meeting tomorrow. ( With Agency Inputs ),
