Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday met family members of the 10 people killed in a firing incident in Umbha village in Sonbhadra after a long standoff with the administration in the Chunar fort guest house where she has been detained.
Some of the family members of the victims killed in a land dispute broke down while meeting Priyanka Gandhi who offered them water.
“We are with you. We will be your voice,” she consoled them.
People from Umbha village had arrived at the Chunar fort, 40 km Southwest of Varanasi, in the morning where the Congress leader was holding a sit-in protest as she was stopped and detained on Friday while she was on her way to meet the Sonbhadra firing victims’ kin.
“I had come to visit them, and now they are here to see me, but they are not being allowed to meet me, I do not understand why the administration is not letting them meet me,” Piryanka Gandhi told reporters ahead of meeting the victims’ kin.
Earlier in the morning, Priyanka insisted that she won’t return without visiting Umbha village.
Follow live updates of Priyanka Gandhi’s protest here
“I will not go back without visiting Umbha village. I can meet the members of victims’ families elsewhere. The administration should make arrangement for that. I can go to the village alone,” she said. “The administration has not shown me any papers about why they detained me.”
She also took on the ruling BJP for not meeting the families of the victims. “Not even a single BJP MLA, MP or chief minister Yogi Adityanath has visited the families of the victims to know about their condition. I am here to express my solidarity with the people of Umbha village. We will become the voice of the people because the Yogi government is trying to silence them,” she said.
As the controversy over her detention escalated, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel said he was heading to join her in her protest.
Priyanka Congress workers continued to sit in protest in Chunar, 40 km Southeast of Varanasi. Congress workers raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath Saturday morning at Chunar to protest Priyanka’s detention.
Senior Congress leader P L Punia claimed that the Yogi Adityanath government in was trying to hide its failure by stopping Priyanka Gandhi from visiting the village.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have visited the families of the victims. No one from the BJP has visited the place. When Priyanka Gandhi was on her way to visit the families of the victims, she was detained, The Adityanath government is trying to hide its failure,” Punia said.
(With input from Ritesh Mishra in Raipur)
First Published:
Jul 20, 2019 11:01 IST
Source: HindustanTimes