Lucknow: Barricading and police forces have been deployed outside the residence of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow. This heightened security comes as Akhilesh Yadav plans to visit Jayaprakash Narayan International Centre (JPNIC) in Gomti Nagar on Friday, which marks the birth anniversary of socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan.
Akhilesh Yadav arrived at JPNIC on Thursday night, where he criticised the Yogi Adityanath government for blocking the main entrance with tin sheets. He expressed concern about what the government might be hiding by erecting these barriers.
ये है भाजपा राज में आज़ादी का दिखावटी अमृतकाल
श्रद्धांजलि न दे पाए जनता इसलिए उठा दी गयी दीवारभाजपा ने जो रास्ता बंद किया है, वो उनकी बंद सोच का प्रतीक है।
भाजपा जय प्रकाश नारायण जी जैसे हर उस स्वतंत्रता सेनानी के लिए अपने मन में दुर्भावना और दुराव रखती है, जिसने भी देश की… pic.twitter.com/kYaHiX1B1n
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) October 10, 2024
What Akhilesh Yadav said
Akhilesh Yadav said, “Is it possible that they are getting ready to sell it, or want to give it to someone?” Last year, Yadav had to climb over the gate of JPNIC to pay tribute by garlanding a statue of Jayaprakash Narayan located within the premises.
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At the centre, Yadav said, “This JPNIC, the museum of socialists, statue of Jayaprakash Narayan and there are things inside on how we can understand socialism.” He also asked a painter to write “Samajwadi Party Zindabad” on the tin sheets as a form of protest against the government’s actions. When asked if he would return to the centre the next day to honour Narayan, he said, “We will decide the programme tomorrow. For how long they will keep it barred behind tin sheds.”
In a social media post, Yadav criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), calling their governance an “ostentatious Amritkal of freedom” and labelled the closure of JPNIC as a representation of the party’s “closed thinking.” He claimed that BJP holds ill-will toward freedom fighters like Jayaprakash Narayan, who contributed to India’s freedom struggle.
#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: Visuals of barricading and police force deployed outside Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav's residence, in Lucknow.
Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to visit JPNIC in Gomti Nagar today on the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan. pic.twitter.com/wzVd4zHwyn
— ANI (@ANI) October 11, 2024
It is guilt inside BJP: Akhilesh Yadav
“It is the guilt inside the BJP, whose members did not participate in the freedom struggle of the country, which does not allow them to pay tribute to the revolutionaries even on their birth anniversaries. Condemnable” he said.
Earlier in the day, Samajwadi Party shared a video on social media that showed workers erecting the tin sheets in front of the main gate of the JPNIC. They condemned this action, calling it an instance of “dirty politics” by BJP.
The party’s social media post read, “The useless BJP government is constantly attacking democracy!” They criticized the government for allegedly insulting great leaders and ruining development projects like the JPNIC, which was inaugurated by Yadav during his tenure as Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2016.
In response to the situation, the Lucknow Police have announced traffic restrictions around the JPNIC for Friday, as reported by PTI. Since the BJP came to power in 2017, work on JPNIC has been halted, despite it housing important structures like the Jayaprakash Narayan Interpretation Centre, which serves as a museum.
