'Made to fly, not to be caged': Varun Gandhi calls for returning Sarus crane to Amethi youth Arif

Varun said that the story of Saras and Arif is special and the happiness of these two friends on seeing each other is telling how pure and pure their love is.

Lucknow: As the heartbreaking video of Amethi youth Mohammad Arif “reuniting” at a distance with his friend Saras crane behind the enclosure at the Kanpur zoo in Uttar Pradesh surfaced, BJP leader Varun Gandhi on Wednesday urged the Yogi Adityanath government to set the bird free so that it can reunite with Arif.

“The story of Saras and Arif is special! The happiness of these two friends on seeing each other is telling how pure and pure their love is. This beautiful creature is made to fly in the free sky, not to live in a cage. Give him back his sky, his freedom and his friend,” Varun wrote in a heartwarming post on Twitter.

The rebel BJP leader also put a video of Amethi youth Arif waving at the Sarus crane, which was taken away from Arif and has been caged inside the zoo enclosure. The bird is seen trying to fly out of the cage but bumps into the walls of the enclosure. Arif had rescued the bird which had broken its leg a few months back and nursed it back to health.

However, the bird refused to go back to the wild when set free and stayed with Arif. As the matter came to the notice of the authorities, the Wildlife Department officials took away the bird 20 days ago and caged it inside the zoo at Kanpur. Ever since the latest videos of Arif's reunion with the Sarus crane surfaced, netizens have been demanding that the bird be set free.

Arif reached the zoo along with Samajwadi Party MLA Amitabh Bajpai to meet his 'friend'. The unusual friendship has perplexed the zoo authorities whether to keep the bird or set it free.