RJD leader and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, Tejashwi Yadav, has lashed out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by calling him a fascist for unprecedented coercive measures taken against poet Imran Pratapgarhi and Dr Kafeel Khan for taking part in anti-CAA protests. The Uttar Pradesh government has slapped Pratapgarhi with a fine of Rs 1.04 crore for organising a protest in Moradabad, while Yogi’s police invoked the draconian NSA against Dr Kafeel Khan.
Taking to Twitter, Tejashwi wrote, “High handedness and extra constitutional conduct of the UP CM has gone beyond the level of being ridiculous, he has started showing his true fascist colours! First Dr. Kafeel & now with @ShayarImran! High time for citizens to convey that a CM is a servant, not their King!”
High handedness and extra constitutional conduct of the UP CM has gone beyond the level of being ridiculous, he has started showing his true fascist colours!
First Dr. Kafeel & now with @ShayarImran ! High time for citizens to convey that a CM is a servant, not their King!
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) February 16, 2020
The district administration of Moradabad said that the fine against Pratapgarhi was calculated on the basis of the cost incurred on the deployment of police and paramilitary forces at the protest site in the district.
Elsewhere, Dr Kafeel Khan was slapped with the draconian National Security Act for allegedly making an inflammatory speech at the Aligarh Muslim University against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on 12 December. Khan was arrested from Mumbai on 29 January after an FIR was filed against him. He was granted bail on Monday last week, but the UP government refused to release him from the Mathura jail even four days after he got the bail. Instead, the government headed by Yogi Adityanath invoked the NSA presumably to keep him inside jail for as long as possible.
