FIle Photo: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav climbs a wall while trying to enter Jai Prakash Narayan International Center to offer floral tribute to the statue of Jai Prakash Narayan on his birth anniversary, in Lucknow, Wednesday, Oct. 11, last year in 2023. The officials had reportedly denied permission to the party workers, citing the construction work at the center.
PTI
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav reached Jayaprakash Narayan International Centre Thursday night and lambasted the Yogi Adityanath government for barring its main gate behind tin sheets apparently to prevent entry.
It is the birth anniversary of the socialist leader on October 11.
Last year, Yadav had to climb over the gate of JPNIC in Gomti Nagar to garland a statue of Jai Prakash Narayan located in the premises.
"This JPNIC, the museum of socialists, statue of Jayaprakash Narayan and there are things inside on how we can understand socialism," Akhilesh Yadav told reporters outside the Centre.
"What is the government hiding by erecting these tin sheds. Is it possible that they are getting ready to sell it, or want to give it to someone?" he added.
According to a video shared online, Yadav upon reaching the building asked a painter to write 'Samajwadi Party Zindabad' on the tin sheets.
Asked if he would come to the centre tomorrow to pay his tributes to the Emergency crusader, Yadav said, "We will decide the programme tomorrow. For how long they will keep it barred behind tin sheds." Later in a post on X, the SP president derided the BJP's rule as "ostentatious Amritkal of freedom" and termed the closure a symbol of the party's "closed thinking." "BJP holds ill-will and animosity towards every freedom fighter like Jayaprakash Narayan ji, who participated in the freedom struggle of the country.
"It is the guilt inside the BJP, whose members did not participate in the freedom struggle of the country, which does not allow them to pay tribute to the revolutionaries even on their birth anniversaries. Condemnable!" he said.
Earlier in the day, the Samajwadi Party on social media shared a video showing some workers erecting tin sheets before the main gate of the JPNIC and condemned the action.
"The useless BJP government is constantly attacking democracy!" it said in a post on X.
The party termed the barring an instance of "dirty politics" of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"This anti-people government has insulted great men by ruining development work like JPNIC built in Lucknow. Socialists will not bow down to these dictators!" it said.
Lucknow Police announced traffic restrictions around the building for Friday.
The JPNIC was inaugurated by Yadav in 2016 during his tenure as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Work on the building, however, was stopped after BJP came to power in the state in 2017.
The building, among other structures, houses the Jayaprakash Narayan Interpretation Centre, a museum.