'Lakhimpur Files' also needs to be made like 'Kashmir Files': Akhilesh

Taking a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said if The Kashmir Files can be made on the Valley, a film Lakhimpur Files also needs to be produced.

Violence had erupted in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3, 2021, during the farmers' agitation against the three farm laws in which a jeep, said to be owned by the son of Union minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra, allegedly mowed down four farmers.

"If a film Kashmir Files is made, then at least, there should also be film 'Lakhimpur Files', where farmers were crushed under the wheels of a jeep," the SP president told journalists in Sitapur district on Wednesday when asked for his opinion on the Bollywood movie.

Written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri, The Kashmir Files depicts the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the 1990s.

Uttar Pradesh was among the first states in the country to make The Kashmir Files tax-free.

Seven other states -- Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Goa, Tripura and Uttarakhand -- all ruled by the BJP, have also waived tax on the movie.

Referring to the results of the assembly elections in which the BJP returned to power winning 255 out of the 403 seats, he said the 'samajwadis' (socialists) have scored a 'moral victory' and that his party was 'rising' while the BJP was on the decline.

Yadav also said that the BJP, in its second consecutive term in the state, will have to face the same questions on inflation, unemployment and development of Uttar Pradesh among others.