The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday took on the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh after two attacks on media personnel in a week, adding that the incidents were a warning signal to journalists to not highlight the ground reality of the state.
“The series of horrific incidents involving journalists in Uttar Pradesh shows a pattern. It seems that the journalists are the target of a specific attack by the politicians and the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh. Possibly, this is a warning signal to journalists not to write anything against the Samajwadi Party government, to not highlight the reality on the ground. So, this is something that we condemn… We demand that the culprits in both the cases must be immediately booked, arrested and justice is done in both the cases,” BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao told ANI.
“The case involving burning of a journalist, I think has not elucidated any response from the state government. If journalists, the media are not safe in Uttar Pradesh, one can understand very well the plight of the common man who seems to be a subject of terror unleashed by the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh,” he added.
Last week, Shahjahanpur-based journalist Jagendra Singh was killed after he launched a social media campaign against UP minister Rammurti Singh Verma. This was followed by the Pilibhit case, where a journalist, Haidar Khan, was allegedly tied to a motorcycle, dragged and beaten up for reporting on a land-grab case.