People's Democracy

SULTANPUR, UP

Huge Rally Protests Murder Of DYFI Leaders

RAHUL NAGAR BAZAAR in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh saw a more than 5,000 strong protest rally on September 29, against the murder of two DYFI leaders Radheshyam and Sanjay. The rally was organised by the district units of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and Students Federation of India (SFI). 

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, AIDWA president Subhashini Ali and several other state level leaders of peasants, agricultural workers, youth, students and women addressed the rally. Radheshyam’s wife Mewati Devi and Sanjay’s father Ram Kumar Yadav also attended the rally.

Addressing the large sweating crowd on a hot and humid day, Yechury paid homage to the two youth leaders on behalf of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau and termed as sad the situation that, even after five decades of independence, people were being killed for demanding their due entitlements and rights. He said the CPI(M) has taken the killing of Radheshyam and Sanjay in all seriousness and would compel the state government to expose the conspiracy behind this act. Yet, he stressed, the mass movement at the local level would have to be intensified manifold; only then could the cause of the slain youth leaders be taken forward.

Echoing the voice constantly coming from the people of the district, Yechury demanded a CBI inquiry into the killings. He also demanded adequate protection for the families of the slain youth leaders as well as for other SFI-DYFI leaders in the district, and extended a warning to the administration that if it failed to ensure this protection, the local activists would take this task in their own hands. Recalling the background of the killings, he said the increasing impact of the mass movement in the area had created a fear among the local mafia elements who thought that doing away with Radheshyam and Sanjay would be the best option for them. But they are in the wrong, Yechury warned them.

President of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, Subhashini Ali underlined the dominance of criminal elements in the whole state, adding that the police have been deputed to protect the mafioso while the people have been left insecure and at the mercy of the latter. Even in the latest instance in Sultanpur district, the police conducted a raid on the houses of Radheshyam and Sanjay just one day before they were killed. And the aim was clear: to make them defenceless so that the killers could have their way with ease.

The CPI(M)’s UP state secretary S P Kashyap said that if the state government had no control over criminal elements and, moreover, if it was not serious about controlling and curbing the activities of these elements, we could rebuff it by organising a large section of the people.

DYFI’s national treasurer Pushpendra Tyagi recalled that Radheshyam was associated with the DYFI since long and had made worthy contributions towards strengthening it in the state, while Sanjay was steadily taking the tasks of the organisation ahead. Their murder has therefore given a big jolt to the organisation and its cadres all over the country feel aggrieved, Tyagi added.

SFI state secretary Prashant Trivedi, DYFI state president Jai Prakash Yadav, its vice presidents Pradeep Sharma and Rishi Srivastava, All India Agricultural Workers Union’s state secretary Ambika Prasad Mishra, its district secretary Ram Baran, CPI(M) state committee members Arjun Prasad and Fakhrul Hasan, Janwadi Mahila Samiti district president Durgawati, DYFI’s Rajesh Tewari, Amar Bahadur Yadav and Sunil Kumar Singh, SFI’s Mukesh Verma and Jagdamba Pandey, All India Lawyers Union’s state secretary Narottam Shukla, leaders of various other parties and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee secretary Asrar Ahmad Khan also addressed the protest rally.

The rally was presided over by veteran freedom fighter Sheetla Prasad Gupta and conducted by DYFI state secretary Sudhir Singh.