Six years after ordering lathicharge on saints in Uttar Pradesh, then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expressed regret on Sunday.
In 2015, then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav had stopped saints from immersing the Ganesha idol in river Ganga.
Saints started protesting against this arbitrary government order.
In order to disperse the protesting saints, the Akhilesh government had unleashed brutal police power on them.
Many saints were injured. This led to massive resentment in the saint community.
Fast forward to April 2021. The Uttar Pradesh assembly polls are just a few months away.
Akhilesh Yadav visited the ashram of Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati in Kankhal in Haridwar. In this ashram, he expressed regret for the 2015 lathicharge incident.
Swami Avimukteshwarnand, disciple of Shankaracharya was badly injured in the 2015 incident. Akhilesh Yadav also met him in the ashram.
Apologising for firing or lathicharge on saints is not new for the Samajwadi Party.
Akhilesh’s father and then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav had ordered firing on kar sevaks in October 1990.
Many karsevaks lost their lives, including the Kothari brothers.
In 2016, realising the gloomy prospects in 2017 UP Assembly polls, Mulayam Singh Yadav expressed regrets for the firing incident of October 1990.
