Priyanka Gandhi arriving in Prayagraj on Sunday
PRAYAGRAJ, Feb 19 (HS): Congress general secretary and incharge for Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi will be arriving at Prayagraj on Sunday. She is scheduled to visit Baswar in trans-Yamuna area of the district, which was recently in news for alleged police atrocities on Nishad community. On February 4, a joint team of police personnel and administrative and mining officials landed up at Mohabbatganj and Baswar village in the Trans-Yamuna area of the district, after complaints of alleged sand mining in the river. A case for rioting, attempt to murder and illegal mining has been lodged against 10 identified and around 150 unidentified persons over the incident. Scores of boatmen and women received injuries during the police action.
BJP leaders were rushed to douse the simmering anger. Later, president of NISHAD party, Sanjay Nishad and Allahabad MP, Dr. Rita Bahuguna Joshi were rushed to Prayagraj to soothe fraying nerves of Nishad community, who were up in arms against the administration for damaging their boats. UPCC president, Ajay Kumar Lallu had formed a 11-member committee, which submitted the report to Priyanka on Friday.
“Since Ramayan time, the Nishad community is working on the river and no animal was affected. But now after an FIR the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is saying that this is affecting turtles and crocodiles. The administration takes money from the big mining mafia and instead of acting against them, they trouble the poor fishermen,” said Congress leader, Irshad Ullah who went to meet DM and SSP along with security personnels of Priyanka Gandhi ahead of her arrival on Sunday.
“The series of tweets from Priyankaji following her ‘Sangam snan’ in Prayagraj suggest a crucial message not just in terms of larger religious outreach but also addressing the caste dynamics. Priyanka’s tweet thanking her boatman Sanjay Nishad deserves special attention. Nishads constitute a major backward caste in the region of the Ganga-Yamuna doab. Historically engaged in river-dependent occupations like rowing boats, fisheries and production of vegetable crops, the Nishads and other related deprived sub-castes have been fluid in their political choices. It was this caste calculation which the Congress had probably also tried to address with Priyanka’s Ganga Yatra ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In 2019, our efforts went futile, but since then a lot of water has flown in the Ganga. Now, we are having a comparatively stronger organisation in the state and have a dedicated UP-centric leadership of Priyanka Gandhi. The BJP’s politics and the Yogi government’s performance have created some resentment and have, thus, opened up a window of hope for us,” said UPCC Spokesperson, Kishore Varshney while speaking to HS.
