National Federation of Indian Women, along with Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan and ANHAD demanded the sacking of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after visiting Hathras on Monday.
A delegation comprising NFIW’s national general secretary Annie Raja, PMS’ general secretary Poonam Kaushik and activist Shabnam Hashmi met the rape victim’s family and doctors and other staff in Aligarh, where the victim underwent treatment before being shifted to Delhi.
The team demanded that Mr. Adityanath be sacked from the CM’s post “for deteriorating condition of constitutional bodies and growing violence against women, especially Dalits”. They also demanded enquiry into the diversionary narrative propaganda, suspension of the District Magistrate, safety security and livelihood of the family. “We demand that NHRC should investigate why all the dissent is being criminalised,” they said in a statement.
Talking about the “narrative” being propagated claiming that the victim was not raped, the team said that an offence has been committed by revealing the girl’s identity by the head of BJP IT cell who shared a video of the victim. “In the video, when the victim was asked why they strangulated her, she says because she was resisting ‘zabardasti’. ‘Zabardasti’ is used for sexual assault and this video is of the police station in Hathras. Such efforts of the government and the BJP in trying to shield the perpetrators are highly condemnable,” they said.
Voice of dissent
The team also condemned filing of cases against protesters and said that all acts of dissent is now being termed as conspiracy to malign “the BJP and its State governments”. “They have forgotten that it is every citizen’s right under the Constitution to raise his/her voice against injustice,” they said.