Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday dismissed the attack by BJP leaders on his government over the Hoshiarpur rape and murder case, terming the remarks of Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Prakash Javadekar as “political puffery”.
“Contrary to what these leaders were claiming, there is no comparison between the Hoshiarpur and the Hathras cases,” Capt. Amarinder said, pointing out in the latter instance, the Uttar Pradesh government and the police had not only failed to initiate stern action but also allegedly tried to cover up the matter to benefit the upper-caste accused. This, he said, was in sharp contrast to the prompt action taken by the Punjab police, which immediately arrested the accused.
Ridiculing the BJP leaders’ criticism of the “so-called silence of the Congress leadership on the Hoshiarpur case”, Capt. Amarinder pointed out that his party had been forced to speak up and protest in the Hathras case because the State had failed to get justice for the Dalit girl there. “Had the BJP government in U.P responded as effectively and speedily as we did in Punjab, neither the Congress and the Gandhis, nor scores of NGOs, lawyers, human rights activists would have been forced to take to the streets to fight for the victim,” he added.
“No BJP leader had uttered a word in protest against the acts of omission and commission of the U.P government and police in the Hathras case, when the entire nation was in angry uproar,” he said, slamming the party over its politically motivated reaction to the Hoshiarpur incident.