Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 4: The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his entourage were stopped from visiting violence-hit Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday and was forced to return from Ghazipur border on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.
Security arrangement were in place over the planned visit to Sambhal of Mr Gandhi who was also accompanied by his newly-elected Lok Sabha member from Wayanad in Kerala and party’s national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, five other Congress MPs from Up and a large number of party workers.
Traffic on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway near the Ghazipur border moved slowly on Wednesday morning due to heightened security measures for the scheduled visit of the Congress leaders. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were later stopped at the Ghazipur border while they were on their way to Sambhal and turned back.
At the congested Ghazipur border, Rahul Gandhi said it was his right to go to Sambhal as the Leader of Opposition, but the police was stopping him. “I am ready to go alone, I am ready to go with the police, but they did not accept that too. They are saying that if we come back in a few days then they will let us go. This is against the rights of the LoP and against the Constitution. We just want to go to Sambhal and see what happened there, we want to meet the people.
“Why is the BJP scared? Why is it using the police to hide its failures? Why is it suppressing the message of truth and brotherhood? My constitutional right is not being given to me. This is the new India, this is the India to end the Constitution. This is the India to end Ambedkar’s Constitution. We will keep fighting,” Rahul Gandhi said.
The Congress delegation led by Rahul Gandhi planned a visit to Sambhal, where violence broke out on November 24 over a court-ordered survey of a mosque. Prohibitory orders, including a ban on the entry of outsiders, are in place in Sambhal. Last week, several Samajwadi Party (SP) MPs were stopped from entering the district.
Curbs under Section 163 (power to issue an order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which were set to expire on Sunday, have now been extended till December 31 in Sambhal.
Sambhal District Magistrate Rajendra Pensiya on Tuesday wrote a letter to the police commissioners of Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad and the superintendents of police of Amroha and Bulandshahr districts, urging them to stop Rahul Gandhi at the borders of their districts keeping in mind the “communal sensitivity” of Sambhal.
“It is to inform that Honorable Leader of Opposition and MP Rahul Gandhi is planning to visit Sambhal to meet families of those killed on November 24, incident. Sambhal district administration has issued prohibitory orders restricting outsiders from visiting the district till December 10. No outsider can enter into the borders of the district without seeking the permission of the competent authority till December 10. I request you to please monitor movement of Mr Gandhi and make arrangements to him from reaching Sambhal in your jurisdiction,” reads the letter written by Mr Pensiya.
“Police are citing BNSS 163 in their missive. So we will insist that they allow at least 4 people. If stopped, we will push for allowing Rahul ji, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra ji, UP incharge Avinash Pande ji and myself to enter,” the UP Congress chief Ajay Rai had said.
Gandhi left Delhi at around 10 am for Sambhal and planned to visit the families of those killed in the November 24 violence. After meeting the families, Gandhi was supposed to return to Delhi by road, according to his itinerary.
Sambhal has been tense since November 19, when a Mughal-era mosque was surveyed on court orders following claims that the mosque was built on a Harihar temple at the site. Violence erupted during a second survey on November 24 as protesters gathered near Shahi Jama Masjid and clashed with security personnel. Four people were killed in the violence and many more were injured.
The Congress alleged that Sambhal violence was well-planned conspiracy by the ruling BJP and more such communal flare up can be instigated in U.P. before 2027 assembly polls. U.P. police placed barricades at various locations on the Delhi-Sambhal route and vehicle inspections have been initiated in every checkpoint. It led to massive traffic jams at different locations on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, especially at the Ghazipur border, which connects Delhi to Noida.
