Lucknow, February 17: Sitting on a dharna outside the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, demanding a meeting with Chief Minister Mayawati, members of Mahila (Women) Congress led by UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Congress MP from Rajasthan Prabha Thakur, were lathicharged twice on Tuesday.
Thakur, who is also All-India Mahila Congress president, was in the state capital to support its UP wing;s dharna programme protesting atrocities against women. AICC secretary Parvez Hashmi too got injured in the lathicharge.
The Mahila Congress workers sat on a dharna at the Shaheed Smarak around 11am and Joshi joined them with Prabha Thakur around 1 pm. They shouted slogans against the Chief Minister for not giving them an appointment to meet her. Around 2 pm, Joshi, along with some Congress workers, broke the barrier put up by the police to stop them from moving out of the place of dharna. Soon police used water cannons to stop them and later resorted to lathicharge to restrain them.
After courting arrest, Joshi told that UPCC Mahila Congress president Meera Singh had written a letter to the Chief Minister’s office on February 9, seeking an appointment to discuss increasing crime against women in the state. The party had prepared a six-page memorandum to be give to Mayawati by an 11-member delegation, including Joshi, Thakur, Meera Singh and other women Congress leaders. The memorandum had details of around 1,200 cases of crime against women in the state in the past six months.
“When the police lathicharged us, there were just four to five women constables, who remained in the backdrop. It was mainly male policemen who lathicharged us and manhandled our party workers…This is the behaviour of a coward and the one who is insecure. I will continue to fight,” Joshi said.
She went back to the Vidhan Sabha after being released by the civil police lines. Following this, the police had to resort to lathicharge again and this time Parvez Hashmi received serious injuries in his leg. Joshi was again arrested along with other Congress leaders. Prabha Thakur announced to take this agitation to the district level in the coming days.
Later, a Congress delegation, led by Thakur, Joshi and Pramod Tiwari, met Governor B L Joshi and gave him a memorandum demanding dismissal of the UP government.
—-Agencies