Varanasi: Priyanka Gandhi chides Yogi govt as parents of 14-month-old jailed for protesting against CAA

Hitting out at the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that a 14-month-child has been separated from her parents, who were jailed by the police for participating in an anti-citizenship law protest in Varanasi.

"The BJP government has shown such inhumanity to suppress the civil demonstrations that a small child has been separated from the parents," Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.

The activist parents of Champak, the infant, were arrested by police in Varanasi for attending a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The grandparents of Champak said that the child's health is getting deteriorated as she has been living away from her parents.

"Chanchal's (Champak) health has deteriorated but the BJP government's bad intention has not been affected. Chanchal's parents are in jail for participating in peaceful protests," Gandhi further said.

The Congress leader further said that it is the "moral duty of the government to allow the innocent mother of this child to go home."

Asserting that the toddler's parents went to protest "peacefully", the family said, "They did not do anything wrong. If something serious happens to our grandchild who will look after her. She needs her parents as she is not eating anything."

"Champak says, 'Amma aao, Papa aao (Mother come, Father come)' all the time. We keep telling her they will come. We do not know what to do," the infant's aunt said.

Ten people died in Uttar Pradesh in various incidents of violent protest against the new Citizenship Act. Two persons died each in Firozabad, Kanpur, Bijnor, Sambhal and Meerut.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.