In UP Assembly, Yogi says no protester died in police firing

Tribune News Service
Lucknow, February 19

In a damage control mode, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday claimed that not a single person in the state had died from police bullets during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests.

“If someone is coming with the intention to die, how can he return alive?” he asked on the reportedly 23 deaths during the anti-CAA violence in the state in December 2019.

In his hour-long speech in the Vidhan Sabha concluding the debate on the governor’s address to the joint House, Yogi said, “All those who died succumbed to bullets of rioters. If someone goes to the street with the intent to shoot people, then either he or a policeman dies.”

Targeting anti-CAA protesters holding round-the-clock stir in Lucknow, Prayagraj and Kanpur, he said, “Azaadi (freedom) slogans are being raised. What azaadi? Are we to work towards Jinnah’s (Mohammad Ali Jinnah) dream or Gandhi’s?”

According to him, the UP police deserved praise for their work after the December violence as he claimed that there was no riot in the state.

He maintained that his government was not against protesters but would come down heavily against those indulging in violence. “If there is violence... woh jis bhasha me samjhega, us bhasha main samjhayenge (we will respond to them in their language),” he said.

Interestingly, Yogi on the floor of the house appears to have contradicted his own police. Bijnor SP Sanjeev Tyagi has already accepted that police opened fire after the anti-CAA agitation turned violent, killing two protesters, one by police bullets.

Responding to a bunch of PILs being heard in the Allahabad High Court on Monday, the UP Government had admitted that 22 people had died in the state in the anti-CAA violence.

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