Lucknow: UP police arrested several Dalit activists, who were holding press conference in Lucknow Press Club on Monday. However, he was released later. The police said that they arrested these workers because they had planned to march to the residence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath after the press briefing, which they did not get permission.
Among the arrested Dalit activists, Ramesh Dixit, Ram Kumar and retired bureaucrat SR Darapuri told that they had called a press conference to discuss the “oppression of Dalits”. Darpuri said that about 50 Dalits were prevented from coming to Lucknow on Sunday in Jhansi. These people wanted to meet the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and wanted to present him a huge soap box. This group was coming from Ahmedabad in Gujarat and they wanted to give 125 kg of detergent with a CM of Uttar Pradesh.
Significantly, in the month of May, people belonging to Scheduled Castes of Kushinagar district of UP had alleged that before the Chief Minister’s visit, the local administration had given them soaps and shampoos. The people of Mushar section, considered to be the poorest of the state, had said that before the program of Yogi Adityanath in Kushinagar, the local administration had asked them to come clean and wash well.
The people of the Dalit community of Gujarat said that they wanted to present a soap to the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath privately as a symbolic protest about this matter. The police asked them to come out of the train in Jhansi without giving any reason. Although those who were sent off by the train, they said that they were told to get off the train due to security reasons. These people were taken to a local guest house and later sent from the train back to Ahmedabad.
