Akhilesh Yadav’s suspended Facebook page restored, party accuses BJP govt

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's official Facebook account, which was allegedly on Friday evening, was restored on Saturday.

Earlier in the day SP functionaries had questioned the basis on which Akhilesh's FB page, which has over 8 million followers, was suspended. Senior party functionaries said the account was suspended without any prior alert.

"We learnt about the account's suspension following some objections related to posts regarding the death of a woman in Ballia and that of a journalist. It was later revealed that these posts were labelled 'Adult Sexual Exploitation and Violence' and the account was suspended," a senior SP functionary said.

SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary questioned the basis for account's suspension. "Who was behind it. The act was a clear attempt to block democratic opinion and truth," Chaudhary said. He said the page was regularly used by the SP chief to share his views, highlight the govt's shortcomings, and connect with supporters.

Other SP functionaries accused the BJP govt of imposing an "undeclared emergency to suppress every opposing voice" pointing fingers at the saffron party and its govt for Akhilesh's Facebook page being suspended.

Meanwhile, minister for electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said the govt had "no role" in blocking Akhilesh Yadav's account. "There was an abusive post from his account, and Facebook blocked it as per its policies," he said.

Akhilesh pays tribute to JP, vows to fight for ‘oppressed PDA'

Lucknow: As a tribute to socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan on his birth anniversary, Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday renewed his resolve to continue voicing the concerns of the "oppressed PDA" community to put to shape JP's idea of Sampoorn Kranti (complete revolution) and social justice in the true sense.Akhilesh questioned the heavy barricading and police deployment put out by the BJP govt around JayaPrakash Narayan International Centre in Lucknow to stop SP functionaries from visiting it to pay tribute to JP's statue installed there. Last year, Akhilesh had scaled the barricading and climbed up the fence to enter JPNIC when the govt tried to stop his entry into the compound at the last moment.

On Saturday, Akhilesh posted a video of the barricading outside JPNIC on X. "People who fought for country's freedom have always faced hurdles from those who have had colluded with forces which shackled India's freedom and independence. Such elements had worked as informers of the British. Those who cannot see our freedom fighters being decorated and honoured, can never respect people and the freedom they fought for," read the post which had a video too.

Addressing a function at the party headquarters, Akhilesh recalled the contributions of JP and his idea of freedom which were based on social justice and voicing the concerns of the oppressed. "We will continue our struggle for the uplift of the humiliated and the deprived which means the PDA," Akhilesh said.

Akhilesh had coined PDA to denote pichrde, Dalit and Alpsankhyak but of late he has modified it to represent pirdit (expolited) Apmanit (humiliated) and Dukhi (harassed). On Saturday, he said it was the original PDA which fits in perfectly with the new meaning as well."JayaPrakash Narayan not only fought the Britishers and dedicated his entire life towards social and political change in India but was equally vocal about things which different governments in independent India, did not do correctly. The then government though it had a strong foothold but JP's tirade brough the government down," Akhilesh said adding that it was the responsibility of SP to take forward JP's idea social justice forward.