Morning Of Matriarchy

The Uttar Pradesh Congress is all set to unveil its new team under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

- Soni Mishra

ON JULY 19, the Uttar Pradesh administration detained Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Mirzapur; she was on her way to Sonbhadra to meet the families of adivasis who were killed over a land dispute. She then declared that she would come back. True to her promise to the victims’ kin, the All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh was in Umbha village—where the killings happened—on August 13.

Priyanka’s superlative people skills were visible as she sat down with the adivasi families, listening to their woes. It had been alleged that the accused—members of an upper caste—were being shielded by the Yogi Adityanath government. After her meeting with the families, Priyanka hit out at the government, asking why the state administration had still not scrapped the cases registered against the adivasis under the Goonda Act.

Priyanka’s Sonbhadra campaign—as part of which she had even declared that she was ready to go to jail for the sake of the victims—had caused a flutter in the Congress, which was despondent after the Lok Sabha poll debacle. The buzz created by the Sonbhadra face-offhad even resulted in several leaders calling for Priyanka to be made party president.