NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES US ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Senior Congressmen led by All-India Congress Committee treasurer Motilal Vora, a former governor of the state, came out on the streets of Lucknow on Monday and courted arrest in large numbers to protest against the alleged grabbing of 25 acres of land earmarked for a memorial to the late prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Though the show was badly managed, as rowdy elements virtually took over the dais for some time, it was after a long time that thousands of Congressmen were seen taking up any issue in such an aggressive manner in the Uttar Pradesh capital.
The act is seen as a signal of the reawakening of the party that had virtually become dormant in India's most populous state, which it once ruled for almost four decades.
The protestors assembled at the Lakshman Mela grounds on the banks of the River Gomti and marched in a procession to the Vidhan Sabha, the state legislature, where they staged a dharna (protest).
Effigies of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani and Chief Minister Mayawati were burnt amid chants of "Indira Gandhi ka apmaan nahin sahega Hindustan (India will not tolerate this insult to Indira)".
Senior leaders, including Vora, Mohsina Kidwai, Begum Noor Bano, and Uttar Pradesh Congress president Arun Kumar Singh, flayed Mayawati for the forced merger of the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan land into the adjoining Rs 1.2 billion (approximately US $25 million) Ambedkar Park, the chief minister's dream project.
Mayawati has justified the takeover of the land allotted way back in 1984 on the plea that the Congress had allowed it to remain in disuse all these years. She had even charged former Uttar Pradesh governor Romesh Bhandari with approving a proposal to hand over the land to a private hotel.
But while letting loose her administration's bulldozers on the temporary structure and boundary wall around this huge plot of land, she also decided to provide an alternative plot for a habitat centre to be named after Indira Gandhi.
Vora, however, termed the move "highly unconstitutional and unbecoming of any chief minister". Arun Kumar Singh termed it as "goondagardi" (gangsterism) and threatened to teach the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition a lesson.
Earlier, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had written a letter to the prime minister, seeking his intervention to restore the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan land for which the Congress government in 1986 had made the due payment.
She is, however, still awaiting a response from Vajpayee. To make matters worse for the Congress, Deputy Prime Minister Advani, who visited Lucknow to address a mammoth BSP rally on Saturday, paid a visit to the contentious plot of land, virtually giving his assent for the take-over.
The protesting leaders, who courted arrest before the Vidhan Sabha, were taken to the local police lines and released in the evening.
Speaking to reporters at the police lines, Vora, who has also been chief minister of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and a minister in the Union government, said, "We will now stage a dharna before this plot of land on October 2."
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
