Minister Ajay Mishra must resign: Oppn raises ante but govt unyielding

Opposition leaders led by Congress’s Rahul Gandhi mounted their attack against the government demanding the resignation and arrest of junior Home Minister Ajay Mishra in connection with the farmers’ killing in Lakhimpur Kheri by his son Ashish Mishra’s convoy in October.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (December 16) called the minister “a criminal” in Lok Sabha and said he must resign.

“We should be allowed to speak about the murder that was committed in Lakhimpur Kheri… where there was an involvement of the Minister and about which it has been said that it was a conspiracy,” news agency ANI reported him as saying.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case recently told the court that there was a “planned conspiracy” to kill farmers and sought to add the charge of ‘attempt to murder’ against Ashish Mishra and the other accused. His father, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Ajay Mishra is not an accused in the case.

Rahul Gandhi’s sister Priyanka Gandhi, who is campaigning intensively in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, too demanded the minister’s dismissal, saying the government’s refusal to do so  was “the starkest indication of its moral bankruptcy”.

“@narendramodi ji, carefully curated spectacles of piety and wearing religious attire will not change the fact that you are protecting a criminal,” she said in a tweet.

The government’s refusal to sack Ajay Mishra Teni is the starkest indication of its moral bankruptcy. @narendramodi ji, carefully curated spectacles of piety and wearing religious attire will not change the fact that you are protecting a criminal.. 1/2

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) December 16, 2021

Several opposition leaders have backed the demand and even moved adjournment notices in both the houses of Parliament.

“I think he should resign… the biggest thing in a democracy. PM should take his resignation. Only then will the House be quiet. People will also feel the PM is taking democracy forward…” National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah told a news channel.

Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav too reiterated the demand: “… on the basis of the report given by the SIT in the court, you (Ajay Mishra) should resign.”

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi said the government was not ready to discuss the matter as the matter was sub judice and the Supreme Court was monitoring the investigation, and added that it was not right for the opposition to deliberately obstruct Parliament’s functioning.

BJP leaders anonymously told NDTV that the party’s stand was that “a father cannot be punished for the actions of his son”.

Also read: Minister, father of Lakhimpur murder accused, calls journalists ‘thieves’

The channel quoted sources as saying that the party’s leadership was not in favour of action against Ajay Mishra, and that he will not, at this time, be sacked from the ministry.

They however termed as wrong Mishra’s outburst at journalists who asked him about the charges against his son at Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday, and said the minister “had been cautioned”.

As the standoff aggravates between the government and the opposition, Rahul Gandhi has accused Modi of shielding the minister.

“It has been said that it (Lakhimpur Kheri incident) is a conspiracy. It obviously is. Everyone knows whose son is involved. We want the minister to resign. We want a discussion in Parliament. But the PM refuses. They are making excuses,” he told reporters inside Parliament.

A group of farmers protesting the Centre’s controversial farm laws at Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3 were run over and killed by a convoy of cars led by Ashish Mishra, triggering a massive outrage against the BJP.