UP: Jai Prakash Narayan Centre sealed, police deployed ahead of Akhilesh Yadav's visit

Akhilesh Yadav went to JPNIC on Thursday evening after the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) refused to grant him permission to visit the site on Friday for the freedom fighter's birth anniversary, citing security concerns.

Upon arriving at JPNIC, Yadav criticized the Uttar Pradesh government for blocking the entrance gate with tin sheets.

"The government wants to hide something by building this tin boundary. Why are they not letting us honour a great leader? This is not happening for the first time. Every year on Jayaprakash Narayan Jayanti the workers and leader of SP used to gather and pay their respects to him...Why does the government want to hide?... This is not under construction, this will be sold..."

In a letter dated October 10, the LDA mentioned that JPNIC is a construction site with haphazardly spread materials and potential insect infestations due to rain. "JPNIC is a construction site where construction material is spread haphazardly, and there is a possibility of many insects due to rain," the LDA said.

The letter also noted that Yadav has Z-plus category security, making it unsafe for him to garland the statue and visit the site. "SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has Z plus category security, due to which it is not safe and appropriate for him to garland the statue and visit JPNIC due to security reasons," it added.

The SP leader further alleged that a wall was erected to stop him and others from paying tribute to Jayaprakash Narayan on his birth anniversary on Friday. He further accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of harbouring ill will toward every freedom fighter.

"This is the ostentatious Amritkal of freedom under BJP rule. A wall was raised so that people could not pay tribute. The path that the BJP has closed is a symbol of their closed thinking," the SP chief wrote in a post on X in Hindi.

He continued, "The BJP holds ill-will and animosity towards every freedom fighter like Jayaprakash Narayan ji who took part in the freedom struggle of the country. It is the guilt within the BJP colleagues, who did not take part in the freedom struggle of the country that does not allow them to pay tribute to the revolutionaries even on their birth anniversaries. Condemnable!"

Earlier, the Samajwadi Party shared a video on X showing workers installing tin sheets before the entrance gate of JPNIC.

The party criticized the BJP government, saying, "The useless BJP government is continuously attacking democracy! The UP government's attempt to re-lock JPNIC, named after Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan, on his birth anniversary is highly condemnable.Not allowing garlanding of the statue of Jayaprakash Narayan Ji shows the dirty politics of BJP.This anti-people government has insulted great men by ruining development work like JPNIC built in Lucknow.Socialists will not bow down to these dictators!"

Narayan formed the first non-Congress government in the country by uniting the entire Opposition against the Congress party during the Emergency. He is remembered for leading a rainbow coalition of Opposition parties in the mid-1970s against then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, calling for 'Sampoorna Kranti' (total revolution). (ANI)