BJP-ruled states see more crimes against women than Maha: Congress

A day after Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asked the state government to hold a two-day session to discuss atrocities against women, the Maharashtra Congress has hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), pointing at the high number of such cases in the BJP-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

A day after Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asked the state government to hold a two-day session to discuss atrocities against women, the Maharashtra Congress has hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), pointing at the high number of such cases in the BJP-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

Citing the National Crime Records Bureau data released recently, the Congress has also said that the number of cases of crime against women was more during the five-year rule of Fadnavis government until October 2019. (PTI)

Citing the National Crime Records Bureau data released recently, the Congress has also said that the number of cases of crime against women was more during the five-year rule of Fadnavis government until October 2019.

Maharashtra Congress’s general secretary Sachin Sawant said the BJP-ruled Assam is at the forefront of atrocities against women with 154 cases per lakh population. He said that UP has been at the top in 2020 in murders and gangrape, while the state registered 59,445, 59,853 and 49,385 cases of atrocities against women in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Maharashtra has reported 35,497; 37,144 ad 31954 cases in three years respectively, Sawant stated.

Sawant also pointed at the Fadnavis government claiming between 2015 and 2019 the number of cases were more in those five years against the MVA rule since November 2019. “The Fadnavis government’s stint was a dark era for women. In the five years of the BJP-led government’s rule, 31,216, 31,388, 31,978, 35,497 and 37,144 cases of women atrocities were reported in five years from 2014 to 2019. The number rose from just 26,818 cases in 2014, when the Congress-led government was in power. In 2020, after the MVA took over, 31,954 cases of crimes against women were registered. In 2019, the last year of Fadnavis government saw as many as 47 cases of gangrapes, which were the highest in the country,” he said.

On Tuesday, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray wrote back to governor BS Koshyari pressing for a special four-day session of parliament to discuss atrocities against women in the country. He also said the BJP-ruled states like UP, Gujarat were witnessing more atrocities than in Maharashtra. It was a reply to the governor, who had directed the CM to hold a 2-day session to discuss the atrocities against women in the wake of the Sakinaka rape and attack case.

BJP’s vice-president Chitra Wagh said that instead of pointing fingers at Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the state government should concentrate on the law and order in Maharashtra. “The cases of atrocities in Maharashtra have gone up after the MVA government came to power. We have demanded a special law on the lines of the existing Act for atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,” Wagh said.