No grounds to keep Chandrashekhar Azad in jail, send him to AIIMS immediately: Priyanka Gandhi

india

Updated: Jan 06, 2020 06:41 IST

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday lashed out at the Centre for its “policy of oppressing” dissent as she demanded the transfer of Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad to a hospital.

Chandrashekhar Azad’s organisation has said he is unwell and needs immediate medical care, a claim rejected by officials of Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

He has been in the jail after being arrested on December 21, 2019, a day after his outfit organised a march against the new citizenship law without permission from the police.

“The government’s policy of oppressing all expressions of dissent and protest has reached the point of cowardice. The lack of basic humanity in their actions is shameful, Priyanka Gandhi posted on Twitter.

“There are absolutely no grounds to keep Chandrashekhar in jail, let alone to deny him medical treatment if he is unwell. He should be sent to AIIMS to be treated immediately,” she said.

Azad’s personal doctor Harjeet Singh Bhatti has said the Bhim Army chief suffers from a disease which requires biweekly phlebotomy, a “procedure to remove extra red blood cells from the blood to treat certain blood disorders”.

Bhim Army spokesperson Kush Ambedkarwadi, who had met him on Friday, also said Azad is being treated for the disease for the past one-and-a-half years. Ambedkarwadi said he had told authorities at the Tihar Jail.

Priyanka Gandhi has been criticising the Centre, as well as the Uttar Pradesh government, over its handling of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and accused the police in the northern state of brutality and high-handedness.

The central and the UP governments have denied her charges and on Sunday Union home minister Amit Shah accused her and her brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of misleading people over the citizenship act and instigating riots.

Protests have erupted in different parts of the country, including the national capital and in Uttar Pradesh, and continue to rage.

The protests in Uttar Pradesh turned violent in December last year as more than 20 people were killed and several injured. Hundreds of others have been arrested after the protests broke out in the northern state.