Maya responds with a heavy hand

A Day after Rahul Gandhi's arrest,political parties and farmers organisations went on the warpath against the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh over the land acquisition issue,staging protests and fasts.

A Day after Rahul Gandhi’s arrest,political parties and farmers organisations went on the warpath against the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh over the land acquisition issue,staging protests and fasts.

The Mayawati government cracked down on protesters and detained or arrested leaders of the BJP,Congress,Lok Janshakti Party and farmers groups such as the Bharatiya Kisan Union across the state for agitating in support of the farmers,who are demanding more compensation for their acquired land.

After Wednesday night’s arrest of Rahul Gandhi and Digvijaya Singh in Bhatta-Parsaul,Congress leaders led by UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi and MPs Raj Babbar,Parvez Hashmi and N P S Jaiswal staged protests in Lucknow and elsewhere after which they were arrested.

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LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan was arrested while he was on his way to Bhatta-Parsaul village. The UP Police stopped Paswan at the DND flyover and arrested him. He was later released and sent back to Delhi.

Rakesh Tikait,a senior BKU leader and son of chief Mahendra Singh Tikait,was arrested along with his followers after they broke a police barrier at Ganga Nagar in Meerut.

In Ghaziabad,BJP MP Rajnath Singh,who was sitting on a hunger strike,was arrested along with party leaders Arun Jaitley,Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,Ramapati Ram Tripathi and Surya Pratap Sahi.

As the movement of politicians around Bhatta-Parsaul intensified,the Gautam Budh Nagar police steeped up security with the Provincial Armed Constabulary and local police searching every vehicle entering the twin villages.

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Standing on the outskirts of Bhatta-Parsaul,SDM Vishal Singh along with circle officer Mohini Pathak rebuked police officers for letting unidentified vehicles enter. We have detained Medha Patkar and her associates along with one local politician. All of them have been sent to Surajpur and then released at the Delhi border, informed Pathak.

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