Rahul Gandhi attacks PM Modi over Bulandshahr violence
Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Bulandshahr violence, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked if "this was the change" he had promised the country and demanded an inquiry into the incident under the supervision of a sitting high court judge. The killing of a policeman during the violence was shameful, Gandhi said and wondered if the police is in such a state in Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's rule then how much terror the common man would be feeling.
"Police official Subodh Singh's killing by a frenzied mob is painful and shameful," Gandhi tweeted.
"If in Modi-Yogi rule, police is in such a state then how much terror the common man would be feeling," he said.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal slammed Adityanath and alleged he was watching a sound and light show in Gorakhpur with his Chhattisgarh counterpart Raman Singh when the violence took place on Monday.
"Prime Minister Modi before the 2014 elections used to say repeatedly that we will usher in change and also politics of change. I don't know how much change has come," Sibal said at a press conference.
"But from 2014 till now, we have seen not change, but revenge, not change, but fear, not change, but hidden corruption, not change, but politics over Ram, politics over Hanuman... Is this the change that Modi ji had promised. Look what kind of a change he has brought about in Bulandshahr," he said.
The incident was also condemned by Union minister and BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in Hyderabad, who termed it inhuman.
"It is an inhuman act. Whoever is responsible for the criminal, violent act, stern measures should be taken against them," he said.
A mob of some 400 people, including right-wing activists, fought pitched battles with police on Monday in Siana area of Bulandshahr district, apparently after right-wing activists were angered by the discovery of cow carcasses strewn in a nearby jungle.
They set fire to dozens of vehicles, hurled stones and also fired guns at police who retaliated with gunfire.
Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, the station house officer of Siana, and 20-year-old Sumit Kumar were killed in the violence.
Sibal claimed that UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has alleged that people from Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS were behind the planned conspiracy and this resulted in the death of Singh.
Expressing grave concern over the law and order situation in UP, Sibal said, "Your police personnel is being killed by those people who are associated with you."
He cited increasing shootouts and killings in UP to stress the "worsening" law and order situation. He alleged that such things are happening wherever the BJP is in power.
Sibal also hit out at Adityanath for giving "poisonous speeches" in Telangana and Rajasthan during poll campaigns.
