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Journalism of Courage
LUCKNOW, June 1: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday announced that he would organise a massive rally to be addressed by various United Front leaders at Lucknow on June 19 in protest against the Mayawati Government’s alleged atrocities on SP workers.
“At least two UF constituents the CPI and the CPM — have already confirmed their participation in the rally, while the others are expected to confirm their programme soon,” Mulayam said at a press conference here.The SP has prepared a detailed protest programme to highlight the “deliberate persecution” of party workers by the BSP-BJP alliance in the state and to bring pressure on the Centre to dismiss it.
The party is also organising a day-long state executive meeting on June 6 to find ways to tackle the increasing incidents of harassment of SP workers by the state government. This will be followed by the state convention of the SP the next day and a week-long training camp for its party cadres in Aurangabad (Maharashtra) in the first week of July.
Though Mulayam said he was personally against invoking Article 356 to dismiss a state government, the BSP-BJP coalition in Uttar Pradesh was not giving the Centre much choice by launching attacks against rival party workers.
