Cong protests against vandalising of Rajiv Gandhi's statue

Upset over a statue of former PM Rajiv Gandhi being vandalised, state Congress chief Raj Babbar claimed today that such incidents reflected an intolerance towards ideologies other than that of the ruling dispensation.
Party leaders also demanded that those who had damaged the prime minister's statue in Mirzapur should be immediately arrested or else they instensify their protests.
"This was not an effort to damage a statue but (an attempt) to finish an ideology...The damage to the statues in the state (in the recent past) from Saharanpur to Mirzapur indicates that there are governments at the Centre and the state which cannot tolerate any ideology other than their own," Babbar, who was leading his party's sit-in in Mirzapur, said.

What was found written at the place where the statue was damaged points towards those who all are behind this act, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief alleged.
He said the Mirzapur incident took place the night after UP Chief Minister Adityanath held a review meeting there.
Is this the 'rule of law' that the chief minister has been talking about, he said.

"The chief minister is going about making claims on rule of law but it is continuously on the decline," he said.
Babbar also recalled the services rendered by the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, especially in the field of information technology and communications.

Reminding the district administration of its promise to nab the culprits within 48 hours, a deadline which ends tomorrow morning, Babbar warned that the agitation will be intensified in the state if the wrong-doers were not booked.
"If required, the stir will be launched at the national level," he said.
As part of the call for holding protests, Congressmen led by former MP PL Punia also held a 'dharna' at the GPO Park in Lucknow and before the Raj Bhawan.
According to a party release, addressing Congress workers who set the effigy of the prime minister and the UP chief minister on fire, Punia said the Mirzapur incident is not a coincidence but a conspiracy to vitiate the atmosphere.

Protests were also held in Kanpur, Pratapgarh, Farrukhabad, Varanasi, Allahabad and Barabanki, the release said.
In Amethi, a constituency once represented by Rajiv Gandhi, Congress workers shouted slogans and burnt the PM's effigy and later submitted a memorandum addressed to UP Governor Ram Naik through SDM, Gauriganj, alleging breakdown of law and order in the state.