In a counter-attack, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday slammed the BJP as he reminded the party of the gang rape of a woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras in a subtle taunt. Taking to Twitter, the leader accused the Uttar Pradesh government of blocking justice by denying that the victim was raped.
“Unlike in UP, the governments of Punjab and Rajasthan are NOT denying that the girl was raped, threatening her family and blocking the course of justice,” Gandhi wrote on Twitter. “If they do, I will go there to fight for justice,” he said about the Congress-led governments in the two states.
He was referring to the alleged gang rape of the 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras last month. The crime took place on September 14 and the woman succumbed to her injuries at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on September 29. After the victim’s body reached her village, the UP police and administration officials allegedly cremated the victim in the middle of the night in the absence of her family or without taking their consent, triggering outrage across the country.
{{/usCountry}}He was referring to the alleged gang rape of the 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras last month. The crime took place on September 14 and the woman succumbed to her injuries at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on September 29. After the victim’s body reached her village, the UP police and administration officials allegedly cremated the victim in the middle of the night in the absence of her family or without taking their consent, triggering outrage across the country.
{{/usCountry}}The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had earlier in the day questioned the silence of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on alleged rape and killing of a six-year-old girl in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur, calling them out for their “selective outrage”.
“A six-year-old child of a Dalit migrant labourer from Bihar is raped, killed and body half-burnt in Hoshiarpur, and it does not shake the conscience of the brother and sister, who rush to every other place which can help them politically,” Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said while addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
Watch: Punjab horror: BJP slams Rahul, Priyanka Gandhi over 6-yr-old’s rape-murder case
“Why is the brother-sister pair not going and voicing horror in Hoshiarpur? Why not in Rajasthan? The selective cry of outrage that the Congress wants to show when it is elsewhere but not in their governed states is completely exposed,” she said.
“Not a word from the tweet-friendly leader Rahul Gandhi. No tweets on this (Hoshiarpur rape case), no outrage on this, and no picnic on this. A woman heads the party. Does this kind of selective outrage suits the stature of their party,” Sitharaman added.