Police manhandled, shoved me: Priyanka
Lucknow/Assam: A high-voltage drama unfolded in Lucknow on Saturday evening as Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged that she was strangulated and manhandled by the Uttar Pradesh Police when she was on her way to meet the family members of former IPS officer SR Darapuri and party member Sadaf Jafar who were arrested during a demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Lucknow.
Narrating her experience, she told reporters: "As we were on our way, suddenly a police vehicle came in front of us and the policemen said you cannot go. I asked them why and was told that we will not be allowed to move ahead.
"I got off the vehicle and started walking. I was surrounded and a woman cop held me by my throat. Another woman cop pushed me and I fell down. I was forcibly stopped and a woman officer pulled me up by my neck. But I was determined. I am standing with every citizen who has faced police oppression. This is my 'satyagraha'."
After meeting the family members of Darapuri, she said: "I was going in a peaceful manner, how was the law-and-order scenario going to deteriorate?"
Meanwhile, visiting Assam for the first time since protests broke out in the state earlier this month over the amended Citizenship Act, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday slammed the BJP and RSS and stated that the NRC and the new citizenship law will be "more disastrous" than the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation move in 2016.
Addressing a public rally at Guwahati, the former Congress president appealed all to be united and tell the BJP that culture and identity of Assam "cannot be attacked".
"We will not allow the BJP, RSS and the 'chaddi-wallas' to attack the culture, language and identity of Assam. RSS and Nagpur cannot run Assam and attack it. If they (BJP-RSS) thought of suppressing language and identity of the North-East, then they have not recognised you yet," he said. "I fear, the state is again returning to the path of violence due to the BJP," Gandhi added.
