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Except for the arrest of Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh in Lucknow on Monday morning, the much hyped 'Virodh Diwas' (protest day) of Uttar Pradesh's key opposition party ended in a flop show.
Singh was arrested along with hundreds of other party leaders and activists for staging a demonstration against the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition.
The party's call had come in pursuance of its demand for dismissal of the state government following the recent revolt by a few independents and BJP legislators. Similar demonstrations were also proposed in each of this sprawling state's 70 districts.
"The Mayawati-led ruling coalition stands reduced to a minority following withdrawal of support by several legislators," state Samajwadi Party general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav told reporters shortly before he was arrested with Amar Singh.
Amar Singh was in the sights of the police right from the time he landed at Lucknow airport around noon. The large contingent deployed at the airport initially advised him to go back, but Singh insisted, "I am a Member of Parliament and the police has no business to prevent my entry into the town."
The police then tried to swoop down on other Samajwadi Party leaders who had gone to receive Amar Singh. But the Rajya Sabha member defied the police cordon and drove off in a motorcade with Shivpal Singh Yadav in tow. Yadav is the younger brother of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who remained conspicuous by his absence.
Just as Singh and others got off their vehicles to stage a demonstration at the downtown Hazratganj crossing, the police swarmed from all sides and let fly with their truncheons. Finally, the protestors were bundled up and packed off in waiting buses to the local police lines, where they were put under temporary arrest.
Amar Singh and his supporters continued to raise anti-Mayawati and anti-government slogans even as the police went about caning them ruthlessly. This was the first time in many years that activists of a political party were thrashed by the police in this manner while they were only raising slogans.
"This is murder of democracy by Mayawati," shrieked Amar Singh, who also wondered on what charge he had been arrested.
Singh flayed the chief minister for resorting to "goonda raj" and condemned Governor Vishnukant Shastri, whom he termed "a BJP man who has undermined the gubernatorial office".
Incidentally, Singh was responsible for fuelling the recent dissidence within the ranks of the ruling coalition.
A senior police officer described Singh's arrest as a measure "in apprehension of breach of peace". He went on to plead, "We had no intention to arrest the MP, but he was repeatedly coming in our way to take into custody some SP activists who were wanted in connection with other criminal acts."
Apparently, Mayawati's strong-arm tactics against the Samajwadi Party demonstrators paid rich political dividends, at least in terms of virtually silencing the otherwise belligerent lot. The unusually heavy police deployments since last evening followed by a crackdown on several leaders, who were known for their crowd-mobilising capacity, had its desired impact by preventing any major gathering by supporters of the party.
Significantly, this was the first time in the Samajwadi Party's history that its state headquarters wore a deserted look on a day when it had decided to stage a major protest against the government of the day.
As many as 1,300 armed policemen, besides 250 riot police personnel, have been pressed into service to tackle the situation arising out of the threat of large-scale violence by Samajwadi Party activists. It was part of the administration's preventive measures that closure of schools had also been ordered in certain parts of the city on Monday.
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