Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government on December 25 denied permission for Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra’s “women’s marathon” as part of the ‘Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon (I’m a girl and I can fight)’ campaign in Lucknow, citing COVID-19 protocols and imposition of Section 144 in the capital.
The women’s marathon was scheduled to start at 8 am on December 26, Sunday morning from the 1090 intersection in the Gomtinagar locality of Lucknow. The campaign was organised in Jhansi and Lucknow. The Congress claimed that at least 100 women participated in the marathon in Jhansi and 6,800 women had registered for it.
The Congress workers slammed the BJP government’s denial of permission and termed it as “dictatorship” of chief minister Adityanath. They pointed out that Adityanath himself participated in an event on December 25, where he distributed laptops and smartphones to 200 students in the city. The event held in Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium was packed with beneficiaries.
The Congress workers reached police commissioner D.K. Thakur’s office protesting against the move, chanting slogans against the state government and the district administration.
However, the police detained them.
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Congress leader Supriya Shrinate told The Wire that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has disappointed a number of women who were going to participate in the marathon with great zeal and enthusiasm.
“Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is fearful of these women as they [the BJP government] did only injustice to them, every day during his rule,” she said. The Congress leader further said that the chief minister organised his own programme a day before with much fanfare, but denied permission to the Congress’s event.
Besides locals, a number of women from various other districts had also registered for the marathon, she said. The marathon was being organised to develop confidence among women under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi, she added.
Sadaf Jafar, national coordinator of the Congress’s women’s wing, said that the BJP is an “ideologically misogynistic” party and it never tolerated events involving women. Sadaf claimed that around 40,000 women had registered themselves to participate in the Lucknow marathon, while more than 10,000 women turned up in Jhansi.
On Sunday morning, defying the orders of the government, hundreds of women gathered at Lucknow’s 1090 Crossing to participate in the marathon. However, the local leaders who were present there were sent back with assurances from the district administration that the new date for the marathon would be announced later, once permission is obtained.
Congress district president Ajay Srivastava told The Wire that he received the denial letter from Gautam Palli police station, and said that the party delegation will meet the senior district authorities to get permission for the marathon.
He further said that resentment among the Congress workers is brewing because the BJP showed its “dictatorial” attitude by denying permission for a programme that was a part of the election campaign.
Dinesh Singh Bhisht, inspector, Palli area, told The Wire, “We followed the directions that were given to us by the senior administrative authorities.” When asked about who gave them the directions, the inspector said the office of the district magistrate had issued them instructions to deny permission for the marathon.
The marathon winners were to be awarded a scooty, and those coming in fourth to 25th would have gotten a smartphone each. The next 100 were to be given fitness bands, while the next 1,000 women were to get medals. The minimum age for participation was fixed at 16 years, and there was no entry fees for the participants.