Power abuse and lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh have reached its peak. The latest in the series of power abuse is the arrest of Indian National Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi who were on their way to visit the bereaved family of the Hathras gangrape victim. Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) strongly deplores this cowardly act of the anti-democratic government of Ajay Bhist aka Yogi Adityanath, stated MK Faizy, National President of SDPI. Police stopped the convoy of Rahul and Priyanka on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh highway. They were travelling to Hathras to visit and console the bereaved family of the 19-year-old Dalit girl who succumbed to injuries inflicted by four upper caste youths who brutally gangraped her, cut off her tongue and broke her spine. Her body was forcefully cremated by the authorities without letting the family to perform the last rites. Both Rahul and Priyanka sat on the road with their supporters when the police refused to let them go forward. Rahul Gandhi was pushed down to the ground by the police and the police resorted to lathi-charge.The fascist sanghis are intolerant to dissenting voices and democratic principles. Might is right is their ideology. They abuse power to stifle voices disagreeing with them and incarcerate the protesters questioning their excesses. Cases of gangrapes and attack on women are spiking in UP. Even yesterday another Dalit girl was brutally gangraped and murdered in Balrampur in the state. Her body was cremated in hurry without post-mortem to hush up any evidence. Criminals roam free in the state. Uttar Pradesh is the criminal capital of the country now under Ajay Bhist’s rule. Rahul, Priyanka or their supporters had not involved in any act of violence or crime. They were peacefully travelling to visit a gangrape victim’s family. The right to peaceful democratic protest is enshrined in India’s democratic Constitution, which is increasingly under threat from the Modi government, and Yogi is in an effort to outshine Modi and Amit Shah in abusing democracy and disrespecting the Constitution. United people’s resistance against the fascist highhandedness seems to be the only solution, as justice cannot be expected even from the judiciary, the third pillar of democracy that people had trusted hitherto as their last hope for justice. If leaders of Rahul’s stature under Z plus security is manhandled in such a contemptible way, one cannot imagine how a common man without any such privileges will be treated by the fascist government. Faizy urged all democratic parties to protest the heinous act of UP police; and offered full support to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.