Earlier yesterday, senior Congress chief Priyanka Gandhi hightailed it to Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh after a rampaging mob of ‘protesting’ farmers clashed with BJP staff, ensuing within the demise of 8 individuals.
Gandhi, who appears determined to prowl for points that may very well be exploited to nook the Yogi administration and brighten Congress’ in any other case gloomy prospects within the upcoming Uttar Pradesh meeting elections, determined to politicise the incident after having pulled the same type of PR stunt in Hathras, one other UP city which was convulsed by the gang-rape and homicide of a 19-year-old lady in October 2020.
As she tried to enter Lakhimpur Kheri on the night time of October 3, the police stopped her. While UP Police was making an attempt to detain the Congress chief, she threatened the officers that she would file instances of molestation and kidnapping towards them.
Video of Gandhi went viral on social media platforms the place she was seen threatening the Police. She stated, “Are you forcing me to sit in this [pointing to the police vehicle]? Are you trying to kidnap me? This is your legal status? Are you getting it? Do not think that I do not understand.”
प्रियंका गांधी पुलिस को धमका रहीं !! जनाब घमंड तो रावण का भी नहीं रहा ….. pic.twitter.com/Z2kNHKNefq— BALA (@erbmjha) October 4, 2021
The Police officer stated he would arrest her if she didn’t allow them to detain her. She stated, “Arrest me. I will go happily with you.” It looks as if she additionally alleged they had been forcing her to take a seat within the car. The Police officer stated, “Who is forcing you? We are not.”
She replied, “You are pushing me. If you keep doing so, it will attract cases of assault, attempt to kidnap, kidnap, attempt to molest, attempt to harm. Are you getting me? I understand everything. Try to touch me.”
Similarly, different politicians, together with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, had been additionally arrested as a preemptive measure to maintain the unstable state of affairs in Lakhimpur Kheri beneath verify.
But, as Priyanka Gandhi was prevented from getting into the village and detained by police officers, the Congress ecosystem went into overdrive to attract a parallel between the Gandhi scion’s detention in Lakhimpur Kheri together with her grandmother Indira Gandhi’s Belchi go to.
Congress supporters and sympathisers evaluate Priyanka Gandhi’s go to to Lakhimpur Kheri with Indira Gandhi’s Belchi go to
Several sympathisers and Congress-leaning propagandists noticed Priyanka Gandhi’s detention in Lakhimpur Kheri as yet one more start line of her political rebirth and the revival of the Congress get together in UP politics similar to Indira Gandhi had resurrected a moribund Congress get together after her go to to Belchi in Bihar 1977.
Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, whose predilection for the Congress get together is commonly obvious and unmistakable, posted a tweet questioning if Priyanka Gandhi’s go to to Lakhimpur Kheri is her “Belchi moment”.
So @priyankagandhi takes centrestage in Lakhimpur Kheri protests by being on the bottom by way of the night time. Her Belchi second? (I hope a youthful India on twitter doesn’t ask what’s Belchi now?) https://t.co/j71bO1OARW #lakhimpurkheri— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) October 4, 2021
Before lengthy, social media web sites had been replete with posts speculating if Priyanka Gandhi’s go to to Lakhimpur Kheri is her “Belchi moment.”
‘Belchi’ second? https://t.co/FwAu7y1hRU— Amitabh Pathak (@AmitabhAAV) October 3, 2021
1977 :: Indira Gandhi Visiting Belchi Village In Bihar pic.twitter.com/grW0Uf17kN— indianhistorypics (@IndiaHistorypic) October 3, 2021
History Repeating itself…#PriyankaGandhiwithFarmers#Belchi#lakhimpurkheri pic.twitter.com/XPsdID8dDb— Jayvardhan Singh Rathore 🇮🇳 (@JaySinghINC) October 4, 2021
Amusingly, this isn’t the primary time that Priyanka Gandhi’s go to to a village struck by violence is hailed by some sections of the commentariat as her “Belchi moment.” Just just like the slavish media have been persistently making an attempt to announce Rahul Gandhi’s ‘coming of age’ for greater than a decade now, they’ve additionally been earnestly concerned in describing each different go to by Priyanka Gandhi to violence-stricken areas as her ‘Belchi moment’.
This is Priyanka Gandhi’s 2nd, sorry, third ‘Belchi moment’
Back in 2019, Gandhi visited the bucolic city of Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh after 10 tribals had been gunned down by the land mafia. That go to, too, was characterised by the media channels and Congress sympathisers as her try to fill in her grandmother’s footwear. Then, there was the Hathras incident in Uttar Pradesh final yr, when journalists and supporters fell over themselves to conjecture that it might play a pivotal position in reviving the Congress get together, similar to Belchi go to by Indira Gandhi did again within the Seventies.
Every occasionally, when Congress leaders sense their reputation is on the wane and the get together is in dire straits, they pull off a stunt of visiting the aggrieved household with the purpose of cashing in on the general public sympathy. There hope is that such visits would appeal to optimistic protection and undercut the groundswell of resentment brewing towards the Congress get together. It is that this hope that’s making Congress supporters and sympathisers hark again to Indira Gandhi’s go to to Belchi village in 1977 that was so hyped media that it ended up dramatically upended the ebbing fortunes of the get together then.
What is Indira Gandhi’s Belchi second?
It was 1977, the general public discontent towards Indira Gandhi was on its peak, due to the simmering anger among the many individuals over her misbegotten plan of imposing the Emergency within the nation and curbing particular person rights. When about 14 Dalits had been massacred in Bihar’s city of Belchi, Gandhi sensed it as a political alternative to placate the resentful sentiments individuals harboured towards her.
She instantly rushed to Belchi together with a cavalcade of 35 vehicles, rode an elephant and managed to draw fashionable grandstanding regardless of a current election defeat and had the locals applaud her because the saviour of the oppressed class. The outcome was evident within the subsequent elections when Indira regained energy handsomely.
Indira Gandhi arriving on an elephant to Belchi, Bihar(Image Source: Ind.Tv)Indira, whose political profession was about to hit the all-time low, discovered the ladder made of those 14 Dalit lives and made a powerful comeback. The Belchi go to was hailed by the media because the watershed second that tipped the percentages in favour of Indira Gandhi. Hailed and hyped by a pliant media and ecosystem, Belchi helped Indira and the Congress get together to stay related within the nationwide politics, and it even laid the muse for her coming again to energy in 1980.
About 4 and a half a long time later, the Congress get together is once more on the crossroads, with its reputation and acceptance at its nadir. The current Punjab fiasco has additionally eroded no matter little belief individuals had within the management acumen of the present technology of Gandhi leaders.
As questions are raised over Gandhis’ declare on Congress management, the partisan media journalists and sycophant members of the Congress get together are desperately hopeful that Priyanka Gandhi’s go to to Lakhimpur Kheri would garner the identical quantity of sympathy and help as grandmother’s go to to Belchi did and as soon as once more reverse the downward spiral of the Congress get together.