Lucknow sources have reported that a group of 45 Dalit activists from Gujarat, who were bringing a 150kg soap to the city as a gift for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, were arrested in Jhansi and kept overnight in a guesthouse located near the state’s border with Madhya Pradesh.
It was stated that the huge soap bar, with Lord Buddha's image on it, was also seized by the police. It was meant as for an incident in May in UP’s Kushi Nagar district, where 100 Dalit families were given soaps by the administration to “clean themselves” before meeting Yogi.
Meanwhile the police officials in Jhansi said the group was stopped as
their presence in Lucknow would have caused law and order trouble and when the
activists started to protest their detention at the railway station; they were
shifted to a guesthouse. An activist stated that the arrest proved that there
is no space for peaceful protest under Yogi Adityanath's government.